Wallace Taylor, a lawyer for the Sierra Club of Iowa, said he's worried the
department has stressed quantity over quality. ...
Exchange Editorial Rdp
By The Associated Press
05/13/2002
Associated Press Newswires
Copyright 2002. The Associated Press.
All Rights Reserved.
Excerpts from recent editorials in Iowa
newspapers:
Wetland restoration:
COUNCIL BLUFFS DAILY NONPAREIL:
Viewed in some quarters as an enemy - by others as "the" enemy - of the
environment, the Iowa Department of Transportation is working to
reverse, even obliterate, that image. Over the past seven years, the
agency has restored more than 1,200 acres of wetlands, usually built on
farmland drained decades ago to raise crops.
The restored areas replaced about 600 acres of wetlands that became
parts of highway corridors.
The 18-acre Hurstville Wetland Mitigation Area near Maquoketa in eastern
Iowa is now home to blue-winged teal, Giant Canada geese, red-tail hawks
and bald eagles. ...
The Hurstville Wetland Mitigation Area is one of more than 50 wetlands
throughout Iowa that have been restored by the agency since 1995.
Kevin Griggs, an ecologist who heads the agency's wetland team, said the
state's priority is to avoid the loss of wetlands when constructing
roads. When that's unavoidable, wetlands are rebuilt elsewhere,
typically within the same watershed.
Apart from providing abundant wildlife habitat, wetlands are deemed
valuable because they improve surface and groundwater quality, recharge
groundwater supplies and reduce downstream flood damage.
Despite the DOT efforts, environmentalists said they have concerns.
Wallace Taylor, a lawyer for the Sierra Club of Iowa, said he's worried
the department has stressed quantity over quality. ...
Neal Johnson, a project manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in
Rock Island, Ill., said the federal government has sometimes allowed the
Iowa DOT to replace one type of wetland with a different variety
covering a larger number of acres.
While that isn't ideal, federal clean water laws aim for no net loss of
wetlands, Johnson said.
The Iowa DOT also has had problems complying with standards that mandate
restored wetlands must have certain soils and plants, and a hydrology in
which the ground is saturated at least part of the growing season.
It can cost from $1,000 an acre to nearly $100,000 an acre to restore a
wetland. The costs vary depending upon the price of land and the
difficulty of restoration work.
The Iowa DOT develops wetland mitigation projects in cooperation with
the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, the Corps of Engineers,
Federal Highway Administration, Environmental Protection Agency and
Natural Resource and Conservation Service.
Progress carries its costs, and the Iowa DOT is, in our view, working to
minimize the environmental impact of the ongoing demand for better roads
in the state. Those efforts are not perfect, but ours is not a perfect
world.
Erin Jordahl
Director, Iowa Chapter Sierra Club
3839 Merle Hay Road, Suite 280
Des Moines, IA 50310
515-277-8868
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