What is mitigation? Once property owners have tried to eliminate or reduce property adverse impacts on a development project through practicable changes, they may turn to mitigation. Established by the 1993 Florida Legislature, mitigation merges the protection of Florida´s fragile ecosystems with permitting landowners reasonable use of their realty. Mitigation is defined as the restoration, enhancement, creation or presevation of wetlands, other surface waters or uplands by applying one or a combination of these stated means to ecological communities similar to the impacted ones or to an ecological community deemed to have been historically present. Whether performed on-site/near the impacted area or off-site-provided the off-site improvements are projected to be of greater ecological value - mitigation must demonstrate that the adverse impacts of the regulated activities.