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Wetlands

Challenge:

Our nation's wetlands are vitally important. They protect our homes and other property by controlling floods and buffering erosion. They maintain and enhance water quality by filtering pollution and sediment. They provide critical habitat to fish and wildlife and hunting and fishing opportunities for sportsmen and women.

Unfortunately, America loses an average of 80,000 acres of natural wetlands a year to draining and development projects. This trend will continue and likely accelerate due to weakened federal protections for wetlands under the Clean Water Act. In recent years, Supreme Court decisions have stripped federal protections for geographically isolated wetlands and intermittent ephemeral streams. As a result, it is now easier for wetlands and other waters to be polluted, drained, filled in and paved over.

Click here to download a Fact Sheet on this issue.

Strategy:

The TRCP is organizing the "We Are Wetlands" campaign with the long-term strategy of educating the general public about the importance of wetlands and their societal benefits. The Working Group on Wetlands is a gathering of representatives from the leading sportsmen and conservation organizations from around the country with the broadly defined goal of collaborating to promote wetlands protections on Capitol Hill and the general public. The TRCP is deeply involved in organizing the group's efforts.  Find out more about the "We Are Wetlands" campaign.

Action:

On April 2, 2009, the Clean Water Restoration Act (S. 787), was reintroduced in the 111th Congress. This bill will restore federal clean water and wetlands protections to the level that was originally intended in the Clean Water Act and clarify agency jurisdiction on which wetland areas to protect and slow the current trend of wetland loss in America. The TRCP and members of the Working Group on Wetlands laud the recent action by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in advancing this legislation.

It is now imperative for the entire Senate to pass this bill and for the House of Representatives to introduce similar legislation. Unfortunately,  legislative progress in the House has not been forthcoming in the last several months. We continue to work closely with Chairman Oberstar on the House Transportation and Infrastructure  Committee to press for quick action in 2010.

As part of the "We Are Wetlands" campaign, the Petition to Save America's Wetlands is also being circulated. To be delivered in 2010, the petition asks the president to support efforts to restore federal protections for wetlands and clean water. The petition goal is 80,000 signatures to represent the 80,000 acres of natural wetlands lost a year in the U.S. To sign or learn more, go to www.wearewetlands.org.

For more information on the TRCP's wetlands initiative, contact Geoff Mullins, director of policy initiatives and communications. For media inquiries contact Katie McKalip, associate director for communications.