[audio:http://wamcradio.org/EarthWise/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/EW-07-05-12-New-Wetlands.mp3|titles=EW 07-05-12 New Wetlands]
In 1972, when Congress passed the Clean Water Act, protection was given to wetlands. Once treated as wasteland, wetlands were recognized as unique habitats in filtering water, preventing floods, and sheltering wildlife. Dredging or filling them was forbidden.
But developers were given a caveat. They could obtain a permit from the Army Corp. of Engineers if they showed that there were no compelling alternatives to wetland development AND they created new wetlands elsewhere.
Wetland mitigation was born.
Four decades later, it’s worth evaluating if created wetlands are as good as natural. New evidence suggests not. A recent publication by David Moreno-Mateos and his colleagues at UC Berkeley, finds that created and restored wetlands store about half of the carbon found in natural wetlands. And created wetlands maintain less biodiversity. This is especially concerning given that about 1/3 of our nation’s endangered species are associated with wetlands.
Add these new results to earlier observations by Greg Bruland and Curt Richardson of Duke University, who found that compared to natural wetlands, created and restored wetlands are less effective at removing nitrate pollution.
Perhaps none of these results should be surprising. Why should we expect wetlands created where wetlands were not meant to be, to function as well as natural wetlands?
What we can ask is that the destruction of the remaining natural wetlands cease.
Over the past 100 years, we’ve lost more than half of the wetlands in our country. They now cover less than 5% of the landscape. It is time for land development to proceed only when wetlands are protected portions of the landscape.
Photo, taken in August 2008, courtesy of Ruthanne Reid via Flickr.