The state's top wetlands expert has been reinstated after a three-week investigation, but the question of who initiated it and why remains unclear.
Connie Bersok was put on paid leave from the state Department of Environmental Protection on May 11, two days after she refused to approve a permit for the Highlands Ranch Mitigation Bank in Clay County.

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But the official investigation report released Tuesday makes no mention of Highlands Ranch. It says Bersok's division director complained about her not showing up at work and emailing official documents on her private email account. Both charges were ruled unfounded.
Corporate records show the Highlands Ranch project is backed by a private equity firm from Washington called the Carlyle Group that's known for its global political connections.

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Then, Bersok wrote, she was told by her boss, Tim Rach, that she was being transferred from the wetlands office. That was done, she wrote, by order of water resources division director Mark Thomasson, who was hired by the DEP a year ago.

The reason Rach gave, she wrote, "was that I was not a good match for the mitigation/mitigation banking section and the direction the section was going. I asked if this was in relation to my handling of the Highlands Ranch Mitigation Bank, and Tim would not answer."

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