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Great Lakes
Article:
Nowhere Near No-Net-Loss
Julie M. Sibbing
Wetlands Policy Specialist
National Wildlife Federation
The goal of "no-net-loss" of wetlands was first
set out by President George H.W. Bush during his 1988
presidential campaign, and was announced as an administration
policy at an EPA press conference in January, 1989. The
concept was originally developed by the National Wetlands
Policy Forum, a stakeholder panel brought together by
the Conservation Foundation. The results of the Forum
were published in 1988 and called for a short-term goal
of no overall net loss of wetlands, and a longer term
goal of achieving a net gain of the nation’s wetlands.
The goal did not just apply to the extent of wetlands
acreage in the country, but also to the functions and
values of those wetlands, a much more difficult goal to
achieve and to measure.
The goal of no-net-loss was embraced and expanded on
by President Bill Clinton. His administration’s Clean
Water Action Plan for the first time articulated an administration
goal of achieving a net gain of wetlands. This Action
Plan set a goal of attaining a net increase of 100,000
acres per year by 2005.
President George W. Bush’s administration has also embraced
the goal of no net-loss of wetlands and is working on
plans to ensure a net gain of wetlands acreage. One such
plan for net gain is presented below, along with an analysis
of its feasibility.
Are We There Yet?
Thanks to enactment of the Clean Water Act, and the Swampbuster
disincentive provision of the Farm Bill, and the rapid
growth of incentive-based restoration programs over the
past 15 years, the consensus among professionals who work
on tracking wetland losses is that net losses of wetlands
have declined significantly over the past 30 years. However,
these professionals also agree that we are still a long
way from achieving no-net-loss. Unfortunately, there is
no comprehensive wetland survey currently that can detail
precisely the current status of our nation’s wetlands.
While a few states have undertaken fairly comprehensive
wetland mapping projects, the two national wetlands trends
surveys conducted by the Federal government use only sampling
to assess changes in status of the nation’s wetlands.
While these surveys help reveal national trends over time,
they are not as useful at determining the current status
of the nation’s wetlands. Other efforts to simply apply
data from regulatory and incentive programs to determine
wetland status have been even less successful.
National Wetlands Inventory (NWI)
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conducts this survey
that tracks wetlandsstatus and trends during ten year
periods on both public and private land. The last report
covered the period between 1986 - 1997. The survey is
based on an examination of remote sensing data and some
field surveys of 4,375 randomly selected sample plots,
each four square miles in size. The 1986- 1997 report
estimated a net annual loss of wetlands and open water
habitats during the ten year period of 58,500 acres of
wetlands. However, if ponds and lakes, which are not equivalent
in function to wetland, aren’t counted, the study actually
reveals a 130,480 acre per year net loss of wetland and
estuarine habitat.
A major weakness of the NWI is that it does not include
ephemeral wetlands, those that dry out during part of
the year. Since ephemeral wetlands are common throughout
the country and are often the most easily converted -
and thus frequently targeted for development and agriculture
- this is an enormous gap in the usefulness of the Status
and Trends report.
"The minimum size wetland on NWI maps is generally
one to three acres. Very narrow wetlands in river corridors,
forested wetlands, and wetlands cultivated at the time
of mapping are generally not depicted. What this means
is that the NWI is designed to err on the side of omission.
If an NWI map indicates the presence of a wetland in a
given area, it is highly likely that a wetland is there.
If the NWI does not indicate a wetland, one is usually
not there, but the maps omit many small and drier-end
wetlands and others that are difficult to photointerpret."
(http://www.ag.iastate.edu/centers/iawetlands/NWIhome.html)
"Improvements in data collection methods result
in wetlands inventoried at the beginning of a succeeding
inventory exceeding wetlands inventoried at the end of
a previous inventory. A naïve reading of these data
can lead to the conclusion that wetlands extent had actually
increased; in reality, the adjusted estimates reveal that
wetland conversion continued from a previously underestimated
base."
USDA, Economic Research Service, Wetlands and Agriculture:
Private Interests and Public Benefits.
The National Resources Inventory (NRI)
The National Resources Inventory (NRI) is a statistical
survey of land use and natural resource conditions and
trends on U.S. non-Federal lands. Non-Federal land includes
privately owned land, tribal and trust land, and lands
controlled by State and local governments. The NRI is
conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural
Resources Conservation Service in cooperation with Iowa
State University's Center for Survey Statistics and Methodology.
The NRI program serves as the Federal Government's principal
source of information on the status, condition, and trends
of soil, water, and related resources in the United States.
NRI is is a poor indicator of overall wetland status
because it:
Doesn’t include public lands
Doesn’t do a good job of surveying coastal or suburban
losses
Based on old statistical designs and the survey is done
differently from state to state
Wasn’t created to provide a national wetlands status
report, but to show trends on Agricultural lands
Doesn’t capture regional trends, like the large amount
of wetlands lost in the Carolinas after the National Mining
Association decision struck down the Tulloch rule.
Data Analysis
The least sound method for determining the status of
the nation’s wetlands is data analysis of regulatory and
incentive program data. This is due to the weaknesses
of the data collected by both regulatory and incentive
programs. Army Corps of Engineers regulatory program data
quantify the amount of wetlands permitted to be destroyed
and the amount of "mitigation" required to replace
the wetland functions and values lost. The problem with
the Corps data is that they account for all forms of "mitigation,"
including: creation and restoration of former wetlands
(results in actual wetland gains to offset losses), as
well as preservation and enhancement of existing wetlands
or even upland buffers (none of these results in actual
gains of wetlands acreage to offset losses - though sometimes
it results in gains in function).
For example, a permit is granted to fill a 10 acre wetland
and 20 acres of existing wetlands are acquired and donated
to a park district as mitigation. The database would show
this as a 10 acre net gain, when in actuality, this results
in a net loss of 10 acres of wetlands. Additionally, the
data does not account for the fact that even wetland restoration
and creation may not result in gains because of the high
failure rate of such projects. Incentive programs also
rarely distinguish between activities conducted on existing
wetlands and those solely designed to restore former wetlands.
Several programs may also count the same wetlands acreage
since they frequently partner on restoration projects.
Vastly improved data tracking is needed for both regulatory
and incentive programs. Yet even with better data, wetlands
destroyed illegally, unregulated wetlands destruction,
and losses due to natural events, such as coastal Louisiana
erosion, would not be captured.
What is Needed to Track Acreage Goal
The only way to truly reveal the extent of the nation’s
wetlands is to undertake a three-pronged strategy of sampling,
comprehensive mapping and modeling. Sampling programs,
like the NRI and NWI, reveal overall trends. Mapping will
tell where losses and gains are occurring.
Modeling will help us understand what will happen, for
example, with global warming, deregulation, etc. While
sampling programs have been functioning for many years,
wetland mapping is proceeding very slowly due to a lack
of funding. Only when mapping is completed will modeling
efforts be meaningful.
Net Loss of Wetlands Functions and Values
To date, there has been no real effort to track net loss
of wetland functions. Indeed, the oftrepeated National
Wetlands Inventory statistic of 58,000 acres per year
of net loss ignores function to a ridiculous extent since
the use of this number implies that gaining ponds and
lakes can offset the loss of natural wetlands. Even the
concept of "no-net-loss" is in some ways misleading
as it assumes that we can actually "replace"
all the functions and values of natural wetlands by building
or restoring former wetlands elsewhere - frequently in
another watershed entirely. Study after study shows how
unlikely efforts to date to restore wetlands result in
fully functioning systems, and to date, there is no plan
to ensure that the functions and values restored are in
any way equivalent to those lost. In reality, the nation
is far away from meeting the no net- loss goal for wetlands
functions and values and it does not appear that there
will be a serious effort any time soon to attempt to quantify
this enormous net loss.
" The goal of no-net-loss of wetlands is not
being met for wetland functions by the mitigation program,
despite progress in the last 20 years."
Compensating for Wetland Losses Under the Clean Water
Act (2001). Committee on Mitigating Wetland Losses, National
Research Council. National Academy Press, Washington,
DC.
Additional Hurdles to No-net-loss
A 2003 General Accounting Office report revealed a significant
lack of enforcement of the Swampbuster program, the primary
line of protection against continued drainage of wetlands
on farmland. "Almost half of NRCS’s field offices
are not implementing one or more aspects of the conservation
provisions of the 1985 act as required."
GAO. 2003. Agricultural Conservation: USDA Needs to Better
Ensure Protection of Highly Erodible Cropland and Wetlands.
An EPA/Army Corps of Engineers’ policy directive related
to the U.S. Supreme Court’s SWANCC decision, issued in
January, 2003 puts (in EPA’s own estimate) 20 million
acres of wetlands at risk. Even a 1% increase in wetland
losses due to SWANCC would represent about as many acres
of wetlands as have been lost the last 10 years.
NWF’s recent report, Crossroads: Congress, the Corps
of Engineers and the Future of America’s Water Resources
examines just 29 proposed civil works projects that together
threaten more than 640,000 acres of wetlands and shoreline
areas. This includes the Yazoo Pump project in Mississippi,
which would drain more than 200,000 acres of wetlands,
and the St. John’s Bayou, New Madrid Floodway project
in Missouri, which would destroy 75,000 acres of wetlands.
The coastal marshes of Louisiana regularly hold half
of the wintering duck population of the Mississippi Flyway;
the coastal wetlands of Texas are the primary wintering
site for ducks using the Central Flyway. Loss rates have
slowed in recent years to about 16,000-22,400 acres/year,
but projections for the next 50 years suggest an additional
630,000 acres of marsh and forested wetland will be lost
despite intensive and expensive efforts geared toward
protection and restoration in the coastal zone.
http://www.ducks.org/conservation/Projects/Southern/GulfCoastalPlain/index.asp
Net Gain of Wetlands?
The US EPA has reportedly been working on a net gain
goal for the administration for some time. A deliberative
draft of EPA Administrator Leavitt’s 500-day Water Quality
Plan obtained last winter included a net gain goal of
1 million acres of wetlands. An EPA official recently
presented some figures (given below) for how the administration
might go about pursuing a net gain goal for 100,000 acres
per year under current programs and policies. While it
is good that the administration is stating its intent
to achieve net gain, the reality is that the country is
still far from achieving no-net-loss. And wetland functions
and values seem to be entirely missing from the equation.
Working with Partners, achieve a net annual
increase of 100,000 acres per year
Will continue to sustain losses of up to 100,000 acres
per year
Farm Bill agriculture incentive programs - 125,000 acre
per year gain
Restoration programs (e.g. FWS, NMFS) - 40,000 acres
per year gain
State/Tribal/local/Non-governmental programs - 35,000
acres per year gain
Presentation by John Meagher, EPA Office of Wetlands
Oceans and Watersheds. Association of State Wetland Managers
Annual Winter Meeting, March 25, 2004
While the fact that the administration is articulating
a net gain goal is good, we have yet to reach the elusive
goal of no net loss. There are a number of factors that
make the plan presented above less than realistic. Additionally,
the tools needed to track no-net-loss and net gain are
not yet available and resources need to be dedicated to
developing them.
Will continue to sustain losses of up to
100,000 acres per year
Continuing to allow a net loss of 100,000 acres of natural
wetlands a year is a very poor policy goal. While there
are always going to be some losses of existing wetlands,
these losses much be minimized to the greatest extent
possible. Due to the difficulty of building or restoring
former wetlands to even partially replace the functions
and values of natural wetlands, there can be no realistic
policy for net gain or even no-net loss policy that includes
writing off such a large amount of natural wetlands. Losses
to natural wetlands must be avoided and minimized, to
the greatest extent practicable, as per Clean Water Act,
Section 404 (b)(1) guidelines. Replacing them functionally
is an extremely difficult, if not an impossible task.
A policy that allows for such a large loss of existing
wetlands will almost certainly lead to a net loss of wetland
functions.
Incentive programs alone cannot ensure a net gain of
wetlands. All remaining wetlands must receive the highest
level of protection available. The most important policy
step the administration can take is to halt overly-broad
readings of the U.S. Supreme Court’s SWANCC decision,
including withdrawal of the current policy directive on
SWANCC, directing all regulatory personnel to enforce
current regulations to the full extent of the law, and
supporting passage of the Clean Water Authority Restoration
Act (H.R. 962 and S. 473) in Congress.
However, efforts must also include strong enforcement
of both the Swampbuster provision of the Farm Bill and
the Clean Water Act (especially requirements that impacts
to wetlands be avoided where practicable alternatives
exist). Additionally, mitigation efforts must be improved
and enforced, data tracking mechanisms improved, and funding
for the Corps of Engineers regulatory program must be
substantially increased.
Farm Bill agriculture incentive programs
- 125,000 acre per year gain
This goal simply cannot be met under current program
levels. The Farm Bill conservation programs (many are
covered below) are excellent programs for recouping lost
wetland acreage. The 2002 Farm Bill authorized the Wetlands
Reserve Program (WRP), the largest of the incentive-based
restoration programs at 250,000 acres per year. However,
the administration has failed to fully fund the WRP, allowing
only 200,000 acres in FY 02, 213,000 acres in FY 03 and
189,144 acres for FY 04 (about 10,000 acres more than
requested by the President). In 2001, 140,000 acres were
enrolled, a fairly typical amount for the late 90s. Thus,
only an additional 40,000-80,000 acres per year are being
authorized, not the 125,000 acres needed under this plan.
Further, land enrolled in WRP tends to be marginal farming
areas producing limited income. They are not those wetlands
that are most threatened by development, therefore they
probably do not do a very good job replacing the functions
and values of wetlands lost to development activities.
Several other Farm Bill conservation programs provide
incentives to restore or protect wetlands.
The Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program provides some
funding for cost-share agreements to restore wetlands
and in-stream habitats. However, only about 10 percent
of the funds for this program are used for aquatic habitats.
The Conservation Reserve Program and Conservation Reserve
Enhancement Program (along with the state CREP match)
provide some funding for the restoration and enrollment
of wetlands and some riparian habitats in conservation
easements.
However, the majority of CRP funds are spent on upland
habitats and most easements in these programs are short-term.
The Continuous sign-up Conservation Reserve program also
provides funding for riparian restoration, however, agreements
are for only 10-15 years.
Restoration programs (e.g. FWS, NMFS) - 40,000
acres per year gain
This 40,000 acre/year goal seems ambitious, but achievable
if the appropriate emphasis is placed on restoration,
rather than simply enhancing and preserving existing wetlands.
All of the existing programs were designed to work with,
not replace the Federal Clean Water Act and most were
in place in the 90s when the Fish and Wildlife Service
was still projecting 130,480 acres per year net loss of
wetland and estuarine habitats.
Therefore, they will do little to offset enormous potential
losses through the regulatory program, such as the estimated
20 million acres of wetlands put at risk by the Corps
of Engineers/EPA joint guidance on the U.S. Supreme Court’s
SWANCC decision, issued in January, 2003. Here is an examination
of some of the larger federal programs and their contribution
to our nation’s wetlands base as of Spring, 2003.
Partners for Fish and Wildlife
This program, administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service has helped to restore or enhance 574,800 acres
of wetlands since 1987 (Martha Naley - USFWS, personal
communication). Unfortunately, wetlands restored through
this program are not usually protected by a legal mechanism.
They are thus vulnerable to future development projects.
Coastal Wetlands Restoration Program
The Coastal Wetlands Conservation grant program has awarded
$32 million to 23 coastal States and 1 U.S. Territory.
Through this grant program about 40,000 acres of coastal
wetlands have been acquired, protected, or restored by
Spring, 2003. It is unknown how much of this figure accounts
for restoration.
National Wildlife Refuge System
The National Wildlife Refuge System, in its 100 years
of operation, has protected some very key wetland habitats
across the nation as refuges and waterfowl production
areas. Nationally, about 35-40 percent of the refuge system’s
95 million acres (including waterfowl production areas)
is some type of aquatic habitat (Ken Grannemann - USFWS,
personal communication). However, new acquisition is not
proceeding very rapidly as full funding of the Land and
Water Conservation Fund has yet to occur. In fact, the
President’s budget request for FY 04 represented about
a 60 percent cut in funding for refuge acquisition despite
his promise to fully fund the LWCF (Jim Waltman - The
Wilderness Society, personal communication). Chronic under-funding
of refuge operations and maintenance programs also prevents
many refuge-owned areas from being restored as wetlands.
While the wetlands already protected within the refuge
system enjoy fairly good protection from dredge and fill
activities, it is not anticipated that new acquisitions
will increase significantly within the next few years.
5 Star Restoration Program
With average grants that run about $10,000 per project,
the 5 Star Restoration Program is more effective at leveraging
local funding and labor for stream and wetland restoration
and clean up programs than it is a major force for long
term conservation of aquatic systems. While the program
has achieved impressive results with small amounts of
funding, no long-term protection mechanisms are required
to ensure that the progress is not eventually reversed.
North American Wetlands Conservation Act
Through the North American Wetlands Conservation Act,
the Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that in addition
to wetlands that have been enhanced for waterfowl use,
or existing wetlands that have been acquired or put under
protective easement, about 205,072 acres of wetlands/aquatic
habitats have been restored. (Joe Moteo - USFWS, email
and personal communications 4/10/03)
State/Tribal/local/Non-governmental programs
- 35,000 acres per year gain
Very little information has been gathered about state/tribal/local
and non governmental efforts to restore wetlands. It is
not likely, however, that this is a realistic goal at
the present time. For example, while Ducks Unlimited has
contributed to the restoration, acquisition, and enhancement
of 11 million acres of wetlands in its 66 year history,
the group has not significantly expanded their restoration
activities in recent years.
Conclusion
Although net losses of wetlands acreage have declined
in the past 30 years, and restoration programs have rapidly
expanded over the past 15 years, wetlands are perhaps
more endangered today than they have been for decades.
The Administration and Congress need to commit themselves
fully to achieving the goal of no-net-loss for wetlands
functions, values and acreage and to planning for a net
gain of wetlands to support the functions and values most
needed by human and wildlife communities. The following
actions are needed immediately: All remaining wetlands
should receive the highest level of protection available
Overly broad readings of the SWANCC decision must stop
and all regulatory personnel must be directed to enforce
current regulations to the full extent of the law.
The Clean Water Act, Section 404 program must be strongly
enforced, especially provisions dictating avoidance of
impacts where practicable alternatives exist.
Funding of the Corps of Engineers Regulatory Program
must be significantly increased and data tracking mechanisms
improved.
Mitigation requirements must be improved and rigorously
enforced to ensure full replacement of wetland acreage
and function.
Swampbuster must be fully enforced in all states and
penalties implemented.
The Clean Water Authority Restoration Act should be passed
by Congress (H.R. 962, S. 473). E
xisting incentive programs should be expanded and new
programs developed according to a national plan to ensure
restoration of all types of wetlands and their functions
and values in all regions of the country.
Tracking mechanisms need to be improved to accurately
account for functions, values and acreage of wetlands
and national and regional trends.
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