The Impact of Regulation

The Emergency Wetlands Resources Act of 1986 requires the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to conduct status and trend studies of the Nation's wetlands, and report the results to Congress each decade. These reports are quite detailed and provide information as to the effectiveness of the federal efforts to regulate wetlands that began in 1972 with the passage of the Clean Water Act. Referencing the FWS report for the years of 1986 to 1997 it is obvious that a substantial reduction in wetland losses has occurred and that reduction must, in large part, be attributed to the Clean Water Act and Swampbuster. The following is excerpted from the Executive Summary of the 1997 report with links to the full 1986 and 1997 reports provided below.

• In 1997, there were an estimated 105.5 million acres of wetlands in the conterminous United States. Of this total, 100.5 million acres (95 percent) are freshwater wetlands and 5 million acres (5 percent) are saltwater wetlands.
• Between 1986 and 1997, a net of 644,000 acres of wetlands was lost.
• The estimated wetland loss rate is now 58,500 acres annually. This represents an 80% reduction from the previous decade.
• Forested wetlands experienced the greatest decline of all wetland types, with a loss of 1.2 million acres (2.4 percent change). For the first time in the nation's history, there are fewer than 50 million acres of forested wetlands in the conterminous United States. Freshwater emergent wetlands declined by 1 million acres (4.6 percent change) during the study period.
• Freshwater vegetated wetlands continued to decline, while freshwater ponds continued to increase by nearly 13% in the last decade. Trends indicate that the acreage of ponds is now about equal to that of all estuarine wetlands.
• Estuarine emergent wetlands declined slightly by 14,450 acres. Most of these wetlands were lost to urban and other types of development in coastal areas.
• The analysis during this study period attributed causes of wetland losses nationally to: Urban Development (30%), Agriculture (26%), Silviculture (23%), and Rural Development (21%).
  (FYI - Silviculture is the agriculture of trees)

FWS Trend Reports (Mid 70’s - Mid 80’s and Mid 80’s - Mid 90’s)

Private Intervention, Public Benefit

Although there is no doubt that the legislation that has been enacted since 1972 has been critical in reducing wetland loss, it must be recognized that the driving force behind such legislation has not been the “good will” of Congress but the pressure put upon Congress and the regulatory agencies by environmental groups. Many individuals and organizations deserve both the credit and our thanks for their diligence in protecting our wetlands.