Wetlands Characteristics and Boundaries (1995) / Chapter Skim
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1 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND
1 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND
Pages 13-19
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From page 13... ...
The United States first became broadly committed, beyond its stewardship of public lands, to protection of public interest in the environment through laws intended to preserve or enhance the quality of air and water. Because air and water seldom can be construed as amenities of a single property, protection of the common interest can occur through regulations that are universally applicable to private and public lands.
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From page 14... ...
The committee's charge also asks that we deal with the basis for translation of definitions into "practical, scientifically valid methods to efficiently and consistently identify wetlands." The committee decided that the translation of a definition or of particular standards or criteria into practical methods is also dependent on certain principles of regulatory practice and thus Chapter 9 titled Regulation of Wetlands and other discussion pertaining to regulation of wetlands (e.g., review of Nationwide Permit 26 and functional assessment) is included in this report.
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From page 15... ...
Wetlands support waterfowl, but only as a result of hydrologic functions that maintain specific wetland vegetation, wetland food chains, and other habitat features that are necessary for the reproduction or maintenance of waterfowl. The association between the value of wetlands to society and the functions that are characteristic of wetlands is important in the design of wetland protection systems.
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From page 16... ...
PATH TO REGULATION At the time of European colonization, the area that is now the conterminous United States contained about 220 million acres (90 million ha) of wetland, comprising about 9% of the landscape (Dahl, 19904.
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From page 17... ...
aComputed from the primary estimates. version, but much wetland conversion was privately motivated and resulted in the creation of productive croplands that today form an important part of the agricultural resource base of the United States (Mitsch and Gosselink, 1993~.
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From page 18... ...
This was followed by a critical shift in federal policy for the agricultural sector through the Food Security Act of 1985, which contained the so-called "swampbuster" provisions denying some agricultural subsidies to property owners who converted wetlands after 1985. CURRENT CONTEXT FOR REGULATION Laws and regulations notwithstanding, the United States lacked until very recently a consistent national policy for regulation of activities in wetlands.
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From page 19... ...
Consequently, the availability of a national wetlands policy statement does not chart an entirely clear course for the regulators or the regulated. Also at issue is whether the national policy of no net loss is a statement of intent to be realized quickly, or at some indefinite time in the future, or perhaps only to be approached incrementally but never actually reached.
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