At the core of the dispute is the murky quandary: what on earth is a wetland? The White House plan, designed to “slow and eventually stop the net loss of wetlands,” would require protected lands to contain standing water for at least 15 days each year or remain saturated for 21. But environmentalists insist that some lands that are damp for even shorter periods-prairie potholes and vernal pools-are critical habitats for pond-dwelling animals, insects and birds. As part of a new policy on wetlands, the administration also proposes to classify them according to their ecological importance; the least significant could lose protection. The White House recommendations are open to public comment for 60 days and may be revised before they are adopted as official federal policy. Congress also is considering several bills that would restrict wetland protection even further.
The official protection of American wetlands began in the mid-1970s, after scientists convinced the government of their value in preventing floods, filtering waters and providing a vital wildlife habitat. A broader interpretation of the 1972 Clean Water Act prohibited dredging or filling wetlands without a government permit. By that point, more than half of U.S. wetlands had already been lost to development and agricultural use. President Bush, seeking the votes of environmentalists, promised in his 1988 campaign “no net loss” under his administration of the remaining estimated 100 million acres of wetlands.
Because the Clean Water Act did not define wetlands, a team of scientists from four government agencies drew up a set of guidelines in 1989. They acknowledged that establishing criteria was somewhat arbitrary. “Scientifically, the environment exists on a hydrologic gradient from water to desert,” says Robert J. Pierce, one of the manual’s authors and now president of an informational group called the Wetlands Training Institute. “Somewhere in between, society says: that’s a wetland.”
Under the controversial 1989 rules-developed by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Soil Conservation Service-wetlands were defined so broadly as to include “almost everything that’s green,” as one of the authors put it. Indeed, the definition covered any land that was wet for as little as seven consecutive days. And just how moist did a wetland have to be? Not so damp that you could see or feel it; in fact the wetness could begin as deep as 18 inches below the dry surface.
The 1989 document gave the agencies with jurisdiction over wetlands sweeping authority to tell people what they could and could not do on their own land. Most were shocked to learn their property was considered wetland. They had to get permission, for example, to fill in rain-filled ruts near cattle gates or even mushy depressions in the backyard. The government vigorously prosecuted violators like Pozsgai. Not surprisingly, those affected by the restrictive policy protested. “All we’re trying to do is get back to a reasonable definition, to put the ‘wet’ back in wetlands,” says Mark Maslyn, the American Farm Bureau’s assistant director for national affairs. The new definition of wetlands, insists Michael Deland, chairman of the President’s Council on Environmental Quality, includes many more acres than were protected before the 1989 guidelines added what he calls “borderline wetlands. "
Each side in this slippery debate is impatient with the other’s arguments. “You can’t change a wetland by calling it something else. A wetland is a wetland is a wetland,” says Hope Babcock, a consultant to the National Audubon Society. Clearly, many politicians, landowners and even scientists disagree with Babcock-and the process of defining what a wetland is seems likely to remain as murky and treacherous as a weed-choked swamp.
Murky: Louisiana’s Terrebonne swamp (JOHN FICARA-NEWSWEEK)
Bogged Down Most of the nation’s surviving wetlands can be found in coastal states, near lakes or in Alaska. STATE ACRES OF PERCENT WETLANDS OF TOTAL (ESTIMATES, STATE IN MILLIONS) ACREAGE Alaska 170.0 45.5% Florida 11.0 29.9% Louisiana 6.8 23.4% Minnesota 8.7 16.2% Texas 7.6 6.9% North Carolina 5.7 16.9% Michigan 5.6 15.0% Wisconsin 5.3 14.9% Georgia 5.3 14.1% Maine 5.2 24.5%
