The New York Times
March 12, 2003

There's More Than One Way to Protect Wetlands
By GALE NORTON and ANN VENEMAN

 

 

WASHINGTON - Every year, the federal government and Americans across the country preserve, restore and enhance thousands of acres of wetlands through cooperative conservation efforts, partnerships and voluntary programs. Unfortunately, that's not the news that most Americans read about. Instead, the focus has been on the wetlands regulatory program.

Wetlands are essential to a healthy environment. They filter water, provide habitat for wildlife and offer opportunities for recreation. Over the past century, theUnited States has lost slightly more than half its wetlands, leaving about 105 million acres of intertidal basins, coastal estuaries, saltwater marshes and freshwater ponds, swamps and lakeside areas.

The debate is not whether to protect wetlands, but how. For the last 25 years, government officials and environmental activists have largely relied on the Clean Water Act's regulations to protect wetlands. That focus has given short shrift to the role nonregulatory conservation - the willing partnerships between citizens and all levels of government - can play.

These programs - in which the government provides funds and technical assistance to individuals and organizations for the rehabilitation of both public and privately owned wetlands - have proved highly effective. In 2000, the last year for which complete figures are available, 1.96 million acres of wetlands were safeguarded and preserved through nonregulatory efforts. In some cases, already protected wetlands were given further protection. In other cases, entirely new wetlands were set aside.

For instance, more than 200,000 acres of wetlands in the Fish and Wildlife Service's National Wildlife Refuges were rehabilitated. Two thousand acres of wetlands were added to the refuges and 1.4 million acres of protected land continued to be managed with care. Other public-private partnerships created, restored or protected an additional 108,000 acres of wetlands.

What's more, these figures actually understate the total wetlands preserved through voluntary efforts. For example, they do not include wetlands restored or protected by private landowners working on their own - such as the New England Forestry Foundation's Pingree Forest easement in Maine, which protects 72,000 acres of wetlands.

These figures also do not take into account the expansion in citizen stewardship and cooperative conservation programs under the Bush administration. These efforts accelerate wetland protection through private-federal collaboration. For example, under the Interior Department's Partners for Fish and Wildlife program, landowners restored 48,800 wetland acres in 2001 and 65,000 acres in 2002.

President Bush wants to build on these efforts. The president's 2004 budget includes a $9 million increase for the partners program and adds $25.5 million to the refuge operating budget. The Agriculture Department budget calls for a 72 percent increase in financing for wetland conservation efforts on farms.

Last May, the president signed a farm bill that expanded the Agriculture Department's Wetlands Reserve Program. Through this initiative, which encourages farmers to rehabilitate wetlands and control agricultural runoff, we will be able to restore 1.25 million acres of wetlands - a land area roughly the size of Delaware - over the next five years. This acreage will supplement the roughly 1.28 million acres already enrolled in the program.