A Better Balance for Wetlands

The regulatory pendulum appears to be swinging back toward greater protection for America’s fragile, vital wetlands and the life they harbor. The improvement comes only after the loss of thousands of acres, one small parcel at a time, while rules governing their use were debated, and therefore is both timely and welcome.

The term wetlands applies to a wide variety of resources, from the always soggy tidal marshes to freshwater pools that form in the spring from snowmelt and rain runoff and dry up later in the year. These seasonal wetlands are found in wooded groves and even in deserts as well as along lakes and oceans. They share common roles with tidal wetlands as crucial breeding and feeding habitat for birds, amphibians and fish, as filters for underground water resources and as natural flood control.

Yet federal rules in place since the 1980s have resulted in a steady and drastic loss of wetland acreage to the construction of homes, shopping malls and drainage and other projects. Under these rules, still in effect, wetlands of less than one acre can usually be filled without notifying the federal government. Each impact is tiny, but the collective loss has been destructive, causing trees and shrubs to die and water to stop flowing and become shrouded in algae. The new rules, now being finalized, are likely to drop to one-third of an acre the amount of wetland that owners can fill without notification.

Developers of parcels of between one and 10 acres currently must inform the Army Corps of Engineers of their plans. That agency and others then have 30 days to raise objections. These rules have proved unworkable; the quick turnaround required to stop an unwise project has in practice meant its tacit approval. The federal Fish and Wildlife Service concluded after a 1992 study that this program has had “a tremendous adverse impact.”

The new rules will probably continue the 30-day notice for parcels between one-third acre and three acres. But for larger plots, they are likely to require developers to obtain specific approval from the Corps of Engineers. That makes sense.

The new regulations, which might be announced this week, should strike a better balance between maintaining wetland viability and facilitating appropriate development.