Note: Some of the material in the above four paragraphs has been paraphrased from the California State Coastal Conservancy's booklet "The Coastal Wetlands of San Diego County".)

Part III: What is a Wetland?

The EPA's definition of the term "wetlands" is as follows:

Generally, wetlands are lands where saturation with water is the dominant factor determining the nature of soil development and the types of plant and animal communities living in the soil and on its surface.* Wetlands vary widely because of regional and local differences in soils, topography, climate, hydrology, water chemistry, vegetation, and other factors, including human disturbance. Indeed, wetlands are found from the tundra to the tropics and on every continent except Antarctica.

For regulatory purposes under the Clean Water Act, the term wetlands means "those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions.

Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs and similar areas."**

**Taken from the EPA Regulations listed at CFR 230.3(t)].

• freshwater marshes
• coastal salt marshes, estuaries, and lagoons
• riparian corridors along streams
• floodplains of rivers and streams
• areas where groundwater (the water table) occasionally reaches the surface
• seasonal or intermittent wetlands, such as vernal pools and "potholes"

Why are wetlands important?

• Wetlands are America's most productive ecosystem, and are a key link between terrestrial and marine ecosystems.
• Natural floodplains convey floodwaters safely to the ocean without incurring property losses or endangering human life.
• Riparian corridors are important for wildlife movement and genetic mixing, especially in arid western United States.
• Wetlands frequently contain rare, threatened, or endangered species (about half of America's threatened and endangered species require wetland habitat).
• Wetlands are significant groundwater recharge areas, and as natural "sponges" help to reduce flood losses in adjacent communities.
• They are also natural "treatment plants" for nutrients and pathogens that occur in urban runoff, reduce downstream sedimentation, and aid in reducing erosion.
• Wetlands have important aesthetic and recreational uses (three-quarters of our commercial and sport fishing species utilize wetlands sometime during their life cycle).

How are wetlands regulated?

Wetlands regulatory and management programs in the U.S. are generally rather complex. They include the section 404 permit program of the Clean Water Act (which is administered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) and various provisions in the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act. Voluminous implementation guidelines also exist.

For example, there are detailed federal guidance documents on how wetland losses and mitigation credits are determined. In addition, some states also have their own wetlands protection and mitigation programs, and permits may also be required from various bodies of local government.

Part IV: Recommendations

Republicans for Environmental Protection makes the following recommendations:

• Wetland protection and rehabilitation should be accorded a high priority in all federal, state, and local planning documents and policy statements. The loss of wetlands to agriculture and urban sprawl should stop.
  
  
• The adopted definition of "wetlands" should be reviewed by local jurisdictions to be sure it corresponds to local natural conditions. For example, in the western portion of the United States desert riparian corridors are one of the most critically important forms of wetlands.
  
  
• Floodplains should be left undeveloped wherever possible. Any type of "flood-control" project that protects less than the full natural floodplain leaves adjacent areas vulnerable to significant future flood damages. Local jurisdictions should utilize tools such as zoning to prevent encroachment into floodplains.
  
  
• The goal of "no net loss of wetlands" should be abandoned, since it implies that wetland destruction is acceptable as long as an equal amount is restored or acquired. But if a 10 acre wetland is filled for development, and another 10 acres of degraded wetlands are enhanced as mitigation, the net result would be that ten of the original 20 acres of wetlands would no longer exist--a 50% loss. The preferred planning option concerning wetlands should always be to avoid them.
  
  
• When restoring wetlands, it is important to plan for adequate maintenance, prevent the invasion of exotic species and domestic animals, and eliminate erosion or sedimentation.
  
  
• Although restoring degraded wetlands is important and should be carried out, we do not favor establishing wetland mitigation banks to offset future wetland losses, as they tend to actually encourage such losses. The general rule should be that it is better to avoid wetlands than to fill them and then mitigate for the loss.
  
  
• If loss of wetlands is unavoidable and mitigation is the only recourse, mitigation should always occur at greater than a one-to-one ratio. (The exact ratio should depend on the type of wetland and specific on-site factors.) This is because experience has shown that not all wetlands restoration projects will be fully successful.
  
  
• When mitigation is used for wetlands losses, such mitigation should not cross watershed boundaries. Mitigation should take place as close to the area to be disturbed as possible. (This is often referred to as "on-site mitigation"). Nothing is gained by protecting a wetland in a distant river corridor or watershed at the expense of valuable wetlands that are being destroyed in an urbanizing area.
  
  
• We favor a very cautious approach to the issuance of Nationwide Wetlands Permits (NWPs) by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. Wetlands inherently do not lend themselves well to generalized regulations that would apply from Alaska to Florida, and there is far too much potential for permitting irreversible harm to significant wetlands by use of the NWP concept. Any NWPs that may be adopted should be very limited in scope and should put environmental and species diversity considerations first.
  
  
• Finally, we urge governments at all levels to pay greater attention to the growing problem of introduced ("alien") species--both plant and animal-- especially those that invade wetland areas. These are a rapidly-increasing threat not only to America's biodiversity, but to its economy as well. We would like to see an increase in funding to combat this problem.