From the National Wildlife Federation.
Net Gain Goal for Wetlands Actually a Net Loss Policy
Julie Sibbing, Wetlands Policy Specialist, National Wildlife
Federation
In the conservation community's monthly meeting with the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Water last week, the
conservation group representatives present requested an update on the
President's wetlands initiative announced last Earth Day. This was the
announcement by the President that the administration was going to go
beyond the no-net-loss goal for wetlands and pursue a net gain goal.
Specifically, the Earth Day announcement included plans to restore one
million acres, enhance one million acres and protect one million acres
of wetlands over the next five years. The media, conservation and
environmental groups, and Congressional staff all took this pledge to
mean that the administration was going to attempt to achieve a net gain
of one million acres of wetlands (as well as enhancing and protecting
another two million acres) over the next five years.
At the meeting last week however, we were informed that the one million
acres of restored wetlands was simply "a gross number goal" (adding up
several federal wetlands programs, including all of the Wetlands Reserve
Program, the North American Wetland Conservation Act grants restored
acres, and Partners for Fish and Wildlife restorations, etcetera for the
next five years) and was not meant to imply that they would counteract
losses or achieve a net gain of one million acres. This gross gain would
"contribute" towards reaching the goal of getting to a net gain,
according to staffers at the Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds,
including Deputy Assistant Administrator for Water, Greg Peck.
The conservation community wasn't alone in its surprise at this
differing interpretation. Reportedly Senate Environment and Public Works
Committee staffers were just as surprised to find this out during an
administration briefing on the issue earlier in the week.
It appears now that the one million acre restoration, one million acre
enhancement and one million acre protection goals stand alone as the
administration's net-gain initiative.
Since:
1. Many of the programs that will contribute to this goal were already
in existence at fairly significant levels prior to the U.S. Supreme
Court's SWANCC decision, which said that the Clean Water Act does not
apply to certain "isolated" waters, and the nation was still losing
more than 130,000 acres of wetlands a year, and
2. It has been estimated by the EPA that the administration's 2003
policy directive on Clean Water Act jurisdiction, based on the SWANCC
decision, has put 20 million acres of wetlands at risk
The administration's initiative cannot result in a net gain and will
most likely result in further net losses. The lesson this administration
doesn't seem to learn on wetlands is that you can't just count the
"assets" column, without also counting the "debits" column. Under this
policy, our wetlands accounting for the next five years will almost
certainly leave us in the red.
Last week, President Bush once again repeated his claim that the
administration has a plan to restore three million acres over the next
five years. This statement is both misleading and inaccurate. It
implies a net gain in wetlands of three million acres and, even if taken
to mean only a gross gain, does not point out that only one million
acres of the plan are for restoration, the rest involve already-existing
wetlands to be enhanced or protected.
Read the President's Earth Day speech from Maine yourself at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/04/images/20040422-4_maine1-515
h.html
Julie M. Sibbing
Wetlands Policy Specialist
National Wildlife Federation
1400 16th St. N.W., Suite 501
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 797-6832
fax (202) 797-6646
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