Wetlands are transition zones between land and aquatic systems where the water table is usually near or at the surface, or the land is covered by shallow water. Wetlands can take many forms, some of which are immediately recognizable as "wet." Other wetlands appear more like dry land, and are wet during only certain seasons of the year, or at several year intervals. In fact, the U.S.…
A wide variety of wetlands exist across the United States because of regional and local differences in hydrology, water chemistry, vegetation, soils, topography, and other factors. There are two large groups of wetlands: estuarine (coastal) and palustrine (inland). Estuarine wetlands are linked to estuaries and oceans and comprise 5% of the wetlands in the forty-eight contiguous states. Estuaries …
Wetlands provide essential ecological functions that benefit people and the ecological systems surrounding the wetlands, as well as the wetland itself. The plants, microbes, and animals in wetlands are part of the global cycles for water, nitrogen, and sulfur. Wetlands also store carbon in their plant communities and soils instead of releasing it into the air as carbon dioxide, making them part of…
Appreciation of the economic value of wetlands has undergone a dramatic change since the 1970s. Prior to that time, wetlands were considered useless, good only for taking up space and breeding mosquitoes. The emphasis was on filling and draining wetlands to turn them into productive land for development and agriculture. In the mid-1970s the growing environmental movement with its emphasis on clean…
Until well into the twentieth century, wetlands were considered nature's failure, a waste in nature's economy. For this reason, people sought to increase the usefulness of wetlands. In the agricultural economy of that time, land unable to produce crops or timber was considered worthless. Many Americans began to think of draining these lands, an undertaking needing government funds an…
The dispute over wetlands regulation reflects the nation's ambivalence when private property and public rights intersect, especially since three-fourths of the nation's wetlands are owned by private citizens. In recent years, many landowners have complained that wetland regulation devalued their property by blocking its development. They have argued that efforts to preserve the wetla…
When the first Europeans arrived in America, there were an estimated 215 million acres of wetlands in the mainland forty-eight states; today there are approximately 105.5 million acres. In the intervening years, more than 50% of the wetlands in the lower forty-eight states have been lost. Wetlands have been drained, dredged, filled, leveled, and flooded to meet human needs. Although natural forces…
People are not the only ones who can dramatically alter wetlands. Nonnative—also called exotic—species FIGURE 7.5 Percentage of wetland acreage lost, by state, 1780s–1980s SOURCE: Adapted from Thomas E. Dahl, "Table 1. Wetland Losses in the United States 1780s to 1980s," in Wetland Losses in the United States 1780s to 1980s, U.S. Department of the Interior,…
The goal of the Clean Water Act is to "restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's water." Wetlands are considered part of the nation's water and are covered by the Act. Section 404 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972 (PL 92–500), commonly called the Clean Water Act, authorizes the Army Corps of Engineers t…
Not all wetlands are being destroyed or threatened. Numerous efforts are ongoing at the private, local, state, and federal levels to protect existing wetlands and to create new ones. Wetland losses can be offset by restoring, creating (mitigating), enhancing, reallocating, or replacing wetlands: Each of these approaches has benefits and drawbacks. More than 75% of the wetlands in the United States…
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