George Howard is a co-founder and President of Restoration Systems. He is an original proponent and influential advocate for private sector mitigation banking and professional mitigation delivery systems. George is responsible for identifying growth opportunities outside of North Carolina and for the implementation of innovative mitigation in North Carolina. He is a respected advocate for legislative and mitigation policy progress in the industry as a whole.
Working as staff in the U.S. Senate in Washington, D.C. from 1990 to 1996, George was responsible for environmental public policy, particularly wetlands, water quality and species issues. Recognizing mitigation banking as an opportunity to return home to North Carolina, George moved to Raleigh in 1996 and helped sponsor the state’s first successful large-scale mitigation bank — the 660 acre Cape Fear Regional Mitigation Bank, now in its 13th year of ecological success. His determination to make North Carolina a leader in private sector mitigation led George to found Restoration Systems with John Preyer in 1998.
George has produced a number of cutting edge mitigation projects for Restoration Systems, including; the nation’s first large scale dam removals for compensatory mitigation, the nation’s first two retail water quality and nutrient off-set banks, and the largest proposed stream mitigation bank in the United States (servicing Harris County and Houston, Texas).
George has testified to the U.S. Congress in support of the industry, is a former six year Director of the National Mitigation Banking Association, and a regular presenter at regional and national environmental conferences. He is a member of the Triangle Land Conservancy’s Communication’s Committee, Wake County Co-Chair for the Land for Tomorrow Coalition, and was appointed in 2006 by Governor Easley to the state Land and Water Conservation Study Commission.
A 1989 Political Science graduate of the University of North Carolina, George grew up in rural Guilford County along the Deep River. He is the grandson of two engineers, and continues a family tradition of water related heavy construction. The former Paul N. Howard Company and Howard International, and today’s Paul Howard Construction Company, have completed more than 1,000 water quality projects in the Southeastern U.S. and twenty foreign countries. He has two children, Georgia (7) and Henry (4), and lives with his wife Pam in Raleigh.