ORAL PRESENTER TITLE: Mitigating a mitigation: Addressing failure in wetland design and maintenance ABSTRACT: Establishing wetland sites can require substantial time and money for design, construction, monitoring, and maintenance, which can be further exacerbated when a site declines into a state of failure. Wetland creation or restoration efforts will run into unforeseen problems that can become overwhelming to practitioners or enthusiasts. Sharing these experiences allows others to learn from past mistakes and understand the difficulties other practitioners often face when dealing with complicated problems. I will share my experiences with three sites, including challenges faced at each site and how these challenges were addressed. Site A is as permittee responsible wetland mitigation site with significant setbacks including fatality of tree plantings, hydrology incompatible with the mitigation objectives, invasive species, and structural failures due to an extreme precipitation event. Site B is a stormwater wetland design which was constructed, planted, and then ignored during the remaining construction of the surrounding development. Site C is a wetland mitigation bank which is situated in the floodplain of the Iowa River. BIO: Will Downey is a certified Professional Wetland Scientist with more than 10 years of professional natural resource and environmental survey experience. He provides expertise in wetland and aquatic resource delineation, threatened or endangered species survey and habitat analysis, and natural resources permitting and regulatory coordination.