DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN EXEMPTED, REGULATED, AND ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES

There are many types of activities that, while detrimental to wetlands, are exempted from regulation, either having been specifically permitted in some public code, such as filling a wetland in order to build a logging road 1, having been specifically exempted from regulation, or having not been mentioned at all in any law or regulation, such as mowing wetland vegetation 2. In the case of an exempted activity, the situation is not hopeless for a citizen who wants to protect the wetland. Here are some recommended courses of action:

1) Educate the landowner or the party carrying out the destructive actions in the wetland. Persuade him that the wetland is worth protecting and work with him to find alternatives to the action.

2) See if the action is dependent upon some local zoning ordinance. If so, work through the local zoning process to protect the wetland.

Citizens who observe a questionable activity in a wetland can find out from their state’s or province’s regulatory agency whether the activity is exempted. See the section on your state or province for details and contact information.

At the other end of the spectrum, many activities are strictly illegal, meaning that people are not allowed to do them under any circumstances. One example of an illegal wetland activity is mowing a county road ditch that has purple loosestrife growing in it 3 or filling in a wetland for the sole purpose of creating an upland 4 (wetland permits to fill for other purposes can be issued however).

In between the activities that people may do and those that people simply are not allowed to do are a plethora of activities that people are allowed to do, provided they obtain a permit. These types of activities are called regulated activities. The purpose for regulating certain activities is to allow a governing body to ensure that the activities are done in such a way as to minimize their impacts on wetlands. At the state/provincial and federal levels, most permits are granted, but the government and, ostensibly, the people still have some oversight in order to protect wetlands by avoiding, minimizing, and mitigating wetland impacts.