Fewer Marshes + More Man-made Ponds = Increased Wetlands

Fewer Marshes + More Man-made Ponds = Increased Wetlands

By FELICITY BARRINGER
Published: March 31, 2006
The New York Times

WASHINGTON, March 30 — In the bog of the federal regulatory code, a wetland is defined as a marshy area of saturated soils and plants whose roots spend part of their lives immersed in water. In the Interior Department's periodic national surveys, a wetland is defined, more or less, as wet.

Traditional tidal, coastal and upland marshes count, but so do golf course water hazards and other man-made ponds whose surface is less than 20 acres.

And so, even at a time of continued marsh depletion, pond inflation permitted Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton and Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns to announce proudly on Thursday the first net increase in wetlands since the Fish and Wildlife Service started measuring them in 1954. Wetlands acreage, measured largely by aerial surveys, totaled 107.7 million acres at the end of 2004, up by 191,800 acres from 1998.

The two cabinet secretaries hailed the apparent reversal in the long trend of wetland losses. "I'm pleased to complete my term as secretary of interior by announcing some good news, said Ms. Norton, who will step down from her job Friday.

A net total of 523,500 acres of swamps and tidal marshes had been lost, but the Fish and Wildlife Service measured gains of 715,300 acres of shallow-water wetlands, or ponds. According to the report's author, Tom Dahl, those can be 20 to 30 feet deep.

Almost two years ago, President Bush, under attack by environmental groups for loosening controls on development in wetlands, announced that one of his goals was to increase net wetland acreage.

For decades in the early and mid-20th century, draining and filling of wetlands by developers was widely accepted. But, as scientists and public officials recognized the importance of wetlands as nurseries for waterfowl, filters of pollution and barriers against storms, Congress passed protective laws.

One multimillion-dollar project redirected parts of the Kissimmee River in central Florida out of the narrow 30-foot-deep channel constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers and allowed it once again to dampen the surrounding landscape. Another successful wetlands-restoration project in southwestern Indiana is undoing the work farmers did decades ago to drain their land.

These projects helped hold down the net loss of marshland in Thursday's report. But the net gain noted in the report was fueled by an increase in pond acreage, which includes things like ornamental ponds in new developments and mine reclamation ponds.

For instance, the mining of sand and clay for the construction of two major highways in South Carolina, Routes 22 and 31, left the Myrtle Beach area dotted with large, deep ponds that qualify as wetlands in the Interior Department's survey but do not provide the wildlife habitat or perform the filtering functions of tidal marshes or cypress swamps.

"For Route 22, there was nine million cubic yards of fill material needed," said Boyd Holt, a regional hydrogeologist for the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control. "There were probably 30 or 40 ponds as a result of that activity since 1998."

At Thursday's news conference, federal officials said that the report measures the quantity — not the quality — of wetlands. Julie Sibbing, the leading wetlands expert at the National Wildlife Federation, called the mining-site ponds "wet deserts."

"The most stunning thing about this report," she said, "is that we're losing diverse natural wetlands in this country and the administration tells us it's O.K. because we've increased the number of ponds."

The report, which covers 1998 to 2004, does not include the loss of 64,000 acres of coastal wetlands from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.