Posted by Jane Clark

[Pew] Commission pushes revival of wetlands
Its recommendations are aimed at cutting fertilizer pollution in the Gulf of
Mexico.

By PERRY BEEMAN
Register Staff Writer
12/11/2001

http://desmoinesregister.com/news/stories/c5903220/16727204.html

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Iowa farmers and many others will have to begin a massive wetland-planting
effort if the fertilizer-flooded Gulf of Mexico's so-called dead zone is to
improve, speakers told the Pew Oceans Commission in Des Moines on Monday.

Iowa is considered one of the main sources of the fertilizer runoff from the
23 states in the Mississippi River basin. The fertilizer feeds algae blooms
that lead to low-oxygen conditions in the gulf, home of one of the world's
richest fisheries. For part of the year, fish and other sea life in an area
larger than New Jersey either swim away or die.

The Sierra Club released a report showing that many farmers are ready to do
their part by enrolling in voluntary federal programs that would pay them to
restore wetlands or plant grassy strips that soak up pollutants. However,
they've been turned away because Congress hasn't set aside enough money for
the work.

The Pew commission is an independent group of scientists and others
preparing recommendations that will be submitted to Congress next year. The
Bush administration is preparing to launch another study of fertilizer
pollution in the gulf after the Clinton administration's panel recommended
installing 24 million acres of wetlands and stream-bank trees and plants.
That plan aimed to cut the nitrogen load to the gulf by 20 percent to 30
percent.

The Sierra Club and other groups and scientists have lobbied Congress to set
aside enough money to cover farmers' proposals to enroll acres of land in
the programs. As it is, 5.3 million acres have gone begging. Iowa tops the
nation with 716,900 acres on the waiting list, according to the latest data
available.

Richard Rubenbauer, who farms near Marshalltown, said his 500-acre wetland
restoration helped keep his family farming while cleaning waterways and
cutting flood risks. Wetlands slow water on its way to rivers.

Congress is debating the next farm bill now. Some lawmakers, including Sen.
Tom Harkin of Iowa, are pushing for more conservation spending.

Speakers at Monday's hearing said fixing the problems in the gulf would be a
far more massive undertaking than the $8 billion Everglades cleanup that
sailed through Congress.

"You need about 5 percent of the landscape soggy and wet to solve this
problem," scientist William Mitsch of Ohio State University said. The plants
naturally remove fertilizers and pesticides before they get into rivers.
"We're talking about a Midwestern restoration. This could be ten-fold the
effort in the Everglades," Mitsch said.

The gulf takes water from an area covering 40 percent of the acres in the
continental United States.

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