The Resource Protection Group, Inc. (RPG) is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization, founded by Michael Rolband in 2012, whose mission is to protect, restore, enhance and increase public awareness and understanding of our natural and cultural resources, including the urban systems in which many of us live. Our work is primarily focused on the protection, restoration and enhancement of aquatic resources. However, we believe appropriate projects must include the adjacent stream valleys, upland buffers and contributing stormwater systems as much as possible in order to maximize aquatic and cultural resource functions and values.  Our recent efforts also address stream and aquatic habitat restoration in addition to wetlands related studies. 

Based on their high level of success, several mitigation banks developed by Michael Rolband and the Peterson Companies (managed by Wetland Studies and Solutions, Inc., or WSSI; a firm that Mike founded in 1991), were granted approval by the Mitigation Banking Inter-Agency Review Team (IRT) to develop and fund a wetlands related research program. These wetland mitigation banks were among the first to be approved in the mid-Atlantic region. These entities collaborated with the Peterson Family Foundation to establish the Wetland Research Initiative (WRI) in 2007 to fund applied and basic research efforts that could make a measurable difference in wetland creation, restoration, and enhancement activities in the Virginia Piedmont region. Our collaborative research results have now been applied and tested across the Mid-Atlantic region, including the Fall Zone and Coastal Plain. The WRI has awarded over $4 million in grants to date to support projects addressing questions about the overall effectiveness of wetland impact mitigation efforts, and specifically how design and construction practices should be modified to improve compensatory mitigation wetland functions and values. Our largest research program to date has been the development of Wetbud, an easy-to-use PC-driven software package for modeling non-tidal wetland water budgets to evaluate design alternatives and improve their performance in the field to support wetland impact compensation efforts.

In 2015, The Resource Protection Group, Inc. (RPG) assumed responsibility for managing current and future activities of the Wetland Research Initiative (WRI).

Our newer and most active current program is the Stream Research Initiative (SRI), which is focused on supporting applied research efforts that evaluate and optimize stream health improvement and restoration efforts. These programs are focused primarily on urban environments and include evaluation of stormwater management practices. To date, over $3.5 million in grants have been awarded in this new research program.