The Daily Iowan
Friday, July 20, 2001
                   Page 2A

                   Coalition pushes to
                   restore wetlands fund

                   Environmentalists and farmers band together to stop a
                   spending plan proposed by President Bush.

                                   By Mike Glover

                                   Associated Press

                   DES MOINES -- A coalition of environmental and farm
                   groups are trying to persuade the U.S. Senate to restore
                   funding for a program giving farmers incentives to restore
                   wetlands.

                   "There is a huge backlog on this," said Chris Petersen of
the
                   Iowa Farmers Union. "This is common-sense funding."

                   The groups announced a new television campaign Thursday at
                   a Statehouse news conference in which they previewed a
                   television commercial that will begin airing in key
Midwestern
                   states this weekend.

                   "America's farmers have been protecting wildlife by
protecting
                   wildlife habitat," the commercial says, warning that a
spending
                   plan proposed by President Bush and approved by the House
                   eliminates funding for wetlands protection.

                   The commercials will air in Iowa, Wisconsin, Florida, North
                   Dakota, South Dakota, and Illinois. Florida was included
with
                   the other farm states because wetlands preservation has been

                   a huge issue in the state, supporters said.

                   "It is incredibly shortsighted for the administration and
House
                   appropriators to ignore the thousands of farmers waiting at
the
                   gates to make room for wildlife on their land," said Brett
                   Hulsey of the Sierra Club's Midwest Office.

                   There are a series of programs involved in the dispute, but
all
                   call for payments to farmers who agree to take fragile land
out
                   of production, allowing them to return it to natural
wetlands
                   condition.

                   Sierra Club official Charlie Winterwood said the issue is
                   particularly important in Iowa because 89 percent of the
                   state's original wetlands areas have been lost.

                   He noted that much of north central Iowa is wetland, with
                   farming made possible only by drilling agricultural drainage

                   wells, which open a direct path for pollution to flow into
the
                   groundwater supplies.

                   He said farmers have a strong conservation ethic and are
                   willing to participate if granted incentives.

                   "There are many more farmers who are willing to
participate,"
                   Winterwood said.

                   There are a backlog of proposals that would allow 1 million
                   acres to be restored as wetlands, he said.

                   The wetlands also could save money that goes out for
disaster
                   assistance, because they are a natural form of flood
control,
                   Winterwood said.

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