THE IMPORTANCE OF CITIZEN INVOLVEMENT

Because everyone in the community benefits from the functions performed by healthy wetlands, wetlands are community resources. Whether it is through water quality protection, wildlife habitat, or places to experience nature, healthy wetlands promote healthy communities. In order to ensure the protection and restoration of healthy wetlands, and therefore the maintenance of healthy communities, we must all be involved.

One measure of the success of our democracy is the quality of our shared environment. How we treat the environment is an indicator of how we treat each other. The ability to act on our desire to protect healthy wetlands so that we may have healthy communities is based on the bedrock values and processes of democracy Since protecting wetlands benefits everyone in the community, protecting wetlands is an act of civic service. Democracy is not something we just "have," it is something that we must " do." We must accept our responsibilities as citizens and stand up for the wetlands that provide our kids with places to play, protect us from floods, clean our water, and serve as homes for wildlife.

Thanks to the scientists, hunters, anglers, and citizen activists who have studied, used, and fought to protect wetlands over the last 100 years, our society has a better understanding of wetlands and their values. We know that each of us benefit from the water quality protection, flood storage, and wildlife habitat that wetlands provide. This recent understanding runs counter to our cultural heritage, however. Although the mountain of scientific evidence that documents the important wetland functions and values of wetlands is massive, the old conception of "wetlands as wastelands" is a current that still runs deep.

As citizens who appreciate the functions and values of wetlands, our task is not easy. The growing understanding over the last century and the last few decades of regulatory protection pale in comparison to the potency of thousands of years of western culture’s imaginative understanding of wetlands and the hundreds of years of our efforts to convert wetlands on this continent. Words used to describe wetlands Swamp, Bog, Muskeg, Mire-evoke images of mystery and intrigue. Movies like "The Swamp Thing" tap into deep-rooted fear of what might be hidden in a wetland. If nothing else, today these words convey annoyance-who among us has not been "mired," "bogged down," or "swamped?"

In addition to this historic aversion to wetlands, another major threat to wetlands is the concept of individual property rights taken to the extreme-that notion held by some property rights advocates that the individual’s right to do whatever he or she chooses on their property supersedes any concern for how that activity might impact the health, safety, and general welfare of others. It is with this backdrop that the campaign to protect wetlands in the Great Lakes Basin is waged. Despite this cultural context, advocates for wetland protection have made great strides forward. Wetland functions are widely acknowledged and appreciated. Wetland regulations at the federal and state levels, and in some local communities, provide a process to avoid and minimize impacts while creating a mechanism that affords an opportunity for citizen involvement. Citizens are involved in restoring formerly degraded wetlands across the state. The growth of the local land trust movement has created an opportunity for the preservation of many important wetlands. And, on the philosophical front, even the "negative" image of wetlands is being appreciated for its value as a metaphor for the unknown and unpleasant side of human existence.

But we still have a long way to go. Thousands of permits to degrade wetlands are applied for in the Great Lakes Basin each year, and the vast majority of them are permitted. Hundreds, perhaps thousands (nobody knows), of wetlands are lost or degraded each year outside of the regulatory process altogether. Some of these are due to loopholes in the law, others are flagrant violations of the law.

Everyone benefits from the multitude of functions and values that wetlands provide. Because everyone shares the benefits of clean water, flood protection, healthy fish, and abundant wildlife, everyone has a stake in how wetlands are protected and managed. As citizens who value and benefit from the functions that wetlands provide, we are responsible for their protection.

There are many different opportunities to get involved in wetland protection. Because the stated intent of wetland regulations is to protect the public interest in the functions and values that wetlands provide, citizens are provided with the opportunity to participate in the permit decisions that will impact wetlands. Participating in the wetland regulatory process, which is the focus of this publication, is but one example of meaningful involvement. For additional ways to become involved in wetland protection, please visit www.michiganwetlands.org to view a copy of the book Michigan Wetlands - Yours to Protect: A Citizen’s Guide to Wetland Protection (Third Edition) 2003. Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council, Petoskey, MI 49770, from which this section has been excerpted.

It is essential that you do get involved. Wetlands are being degraded as you read this. There are millions of acres of drained wetlands waiting to be restored. The time to take action is now. If not you, then who?