how many acres of wetlands are destroyed in the us each year

How much wetland has been lost in the United States?

The total decline of wetland since 1978 is estimated at 41,000 acres, with the rate of decline slowing between the periods 1978 to 1998 (loss of approximately 1,642 acres per year) and 1998 to 2005 (approximately 1,157 acres per year).

How many acres of wetlands are in the United States?

Coastal wetlands cover about 40 million acres and make up 38 percent of the total wetland acreage in the conterminous United States. Eighty-one percent of coastal wetlands in the conterminous United States are located in the southeast.

Why are Michigan’s wetlands being destroyed?

Today, wetlands degradation and destruction is occurring more rapidly than in any other ecosystem. Since the early 1800s, 40 percent, or 4.273 million acres, of Michigan’s wetlands have been destroyed due to drainage, farming, housing, roads construction, and other development.

How did the United States government encourage the destruction of wetlands?

(Photograph courtesy of U.S. Department of Agriculture.) By the 1960's, most political, financial, and institutional incentives to drain or destroy wetlands were in place. The Federal Government encouraged land drainage and wetland destruction through a variety of legislative and policy instruments.

How many acres of wetlands does the US lose each year?

50,000 wetland acresDuring the 1990s the rate of wetlands loss in the U.S. declined by some 80 percent over previous decades. But the nation is still losing upwards of 50,000 wetland acres per year, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

How many wetlands have been destroyed in us?

In total, the United States has lost approximately 16.8 million acres of wetlands since the mid-1950s and more than 2 million acres of vegetated wetlands just since 1986.

How many acres of wetlands are in the United States?

The land area that now makes up the United States origi- nally contained almost 392 million acres of wetlands (221 million acres in the lower 48 states). Historical estimates of wetlands distribution by state indicate that 21 states were bestowed with three million acres or more of wetlands.

What percentage of wetlands have been destroyed?

Fifty percent of the world's wetlands have been destroyed in the last 100 years, a new report said. "Taking mangroves as an example, 20 per cent (3.6 million hectares) of total coverage has been lost since 1980, with recent rates of loss of up to one percent per year," said the report released Tuesday.

What state loses the most wetlands?

FloridaState wetland losses: Florida has lost the most acreage cover -- 9.3 million acres. California has lost the largest percentage of original wetlands in the state -- 91%. Twenty-two states have lost more than 50% of their original wetlands.

How much wetland has been lost?

Unsustainable development Over the last 300 years, a staggering 87% of the world's wetlands have been lost. During this time, hundreds of thousands of hectares have been drained to provide land for housing, industry and agriculture.

What is the largest wetland in the USA?

Atchafalaya SwampThis is Atchafalaya Basin or Atchafalaya Swamp, the largest wetland and swamp in the United States. Located in central Louisiana, near Breaux Bridge and Grosse Tete, it is a combination of wetlands and river delta where the Atchafalaya River and the Gulf of Mexico converge.

What percentage of the US is wetlands?

Wetlands currently cover 5.5 percent of the land in the 48 contiguous states. An estimated 95 percent of these wetlands are freshwater; the rest are marine or estuarine. Wetland extent can be affected by a variety of natural stressors, such as erosion, land subsidence, droughts, sea level change, and storms.

What is the largest wetland system in the United States?

The Atchafalaya BasinThe Atchafalaya Basin, or Atchafalaya Swamp (/əˌtʃæfəˈlaɪə/; Louisiana French: L'Atchafalaya, [latʃafalaˈja]), is the largest wetland and swamp in the United States. Located in south central Louisiana, it is a combination of wetlands and river delta area where the Atchafalaya River and the Gulf of Mexico converge.

How fast are the wetlands disappearing?

The continental United States has lost more than 50 percent of its wetlands since the 1600s, when wetlands covered an estimated 220 million acres, although the rate of loss has decreased in recent years thanks to conservation efforts.

Are wetlands still being destroyed?

Approximately 100 million wetland acres remain in the 48 contiguous states, but they continue to be lost at a rate of about 60,000 acres annually. Draining wetlands for agricultural purposes is significant, but declining, while development pressure is emerging as the largest cause of wetland loss.

Which state lost the largest total acreage of wetlands over the past 200 years?

The state with the highest percent loss of wetlands is California (an estimated 91 percent loss from the 1780's to the 1980's). Florida has lost approximately 9.3 million acres of wetlands during this 200-year timespan .

Are wetlands still being destroyed?

Approximately 100 million wetland acres remain in the 48 contiguous states, but they continue to be lost at a rate of about 60,000 acres annually. Draining wetlands for agricultural purposes is significant, but declining, while development pressure is emerging as the largest cause of wetland loss.

What percent of wetlands have been drained and filled?

California has lost more than 90% of its historical wetlands and today, many remaining wetlands are threatened.

Where have wetlands been destroyed?

The Great Lakes watershed has lost 62 percent of its original wetlands, and some parts of this region have lost more than 90 percent of these habitats.

How are humans destroying wetlands?

Common direct impacts to wetlands include filling, grading, removal of vegetation, building construction and changes in water levels and drainage patterns. Most disturbances that result in direct impacts to wetlands are controlled by State and Federal wetland regulatory programs.

How many acres of wetlands were there in the Conterminous?

United States. At the time of European settlement in the early 1600's, the area that was to become the conterminous United States had approximately 221 million acres of wetlands. About 103 million acres remained as of the mid-1980's (Dahl and Johnson, 1991).

How did the Civil War affect wetlands?

The American Civil War (1861-65) affected wetlands because traversing swamps and marshes with heavy equipment presented major logistical problems for both armies. The design, engineering, and construction of transportation and communication networks were stimulated. Attention became focused on the development of routes around, through, or over water bodies and wetlands, and on production of accurate maps (fig. 7). These maps provided an early glimpse of some of the Nation's wetlands.#N#(Click on image for a larger version)#N#Figure 7. Confederate States of America map of Southeastern United States with wetlands depicted for strategic rather than natural resources value. (Source: National Archives, Record Group 94, Civil War Atlas, Plate CXLIV.) States with notable wetland loss, 1800 to 1860.

How have society's views about wetlands changed?

Society's views about wetlands have changed considerably--especially in the last half century. Interest in the preservation of wetlands has increased as the value of wetlands to society has become more fully understood.

What innovation allowed the channelizing or clearing of small waterways at the expense of adjacent wetlands?

Another innovation, the steam-powered dredge, allowed the channelizing or clearing of small waterways at the expense of adjacent wetlands. Between 1810 and 1840, new agricultural implements--plows, rakes, and cultivators--enabled settlers to break ground previously not considered for farming (McManis, 1964).

What were the incentives for the destruction of wetlands?

By the 1960's, most political, financial, and institutional incentives to drain or destroy wetlands were in place. The Federal Government encouraged land drainage and wetland destruction through a variety of legislative and policy instruments. For example, the Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act (1954) directly and indirectly increased the drainage of wetlands near flood-control projects (Erickson and others, 1979). The Federal Government directly subsidized or facilitated wetland losses through its many public-works projects, technical practices, and cost-shared drainage programs administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (Erickson, 1979). Tile and open-ditch drainage were considered conservation practices under the Agriculture Conservation Program--whose policies caused wetland losses averaging 550,000 acres each year from the mid-1950's to the mid-1970's (Office of Technology Assessment, 1984). Agriculture was responsible for more than 80 percent of these losses (Frayer and others, 1983). Figure 12 shows States with notable wetland losses between 1950 and 1990.

What were the most important projects that affected the wetlands?

Technology was increasingly important in manipulation of the Nation's water resources. Two of the most notable projects that affected wetlands were California's Central Valley Project and the lock and dam system on the Mississippi River. #N#Although draining had begun one-half century earlier, wetland modification in the Central Valley accelerated early in the 20th century. By the 1920's, about 70 percent of the original wetland acreage had been modified by levees, drainage, and water-diversion projects (Frayer and others, 1989). In the 1930's, large-scale flood-control projects, diversion dams, and water-control structures were being built on the tributary rivers entering the valley.

How many acres were lost in the 1980s?

About 103 million acres remained as of the mid-1980's (Dahl and Johnson, 1991). Six States lost 85 percent or more of their original wetland acreage--twenty-two lost 50 percent or more (Dahl, 1990) (fig. 2). Even today, all of the effects of these losses might not be fully realized.

How many acres of wetlands have been destroyed?

Since the 16th century, more than half of the estimated original 220,000,000+ acres of U.S. wetlands (not including Alaska) have been degraded or destroyed.

How are wetland ecosystems valued?

Wetlands can be valued in terms of their contributions to ecological, economic and social systems. Wetlands service these systems through multiple processes including water filtration, water storage and biological productivity. They also contribute the functions of flood control, providing a nutrient sink, groundwater recharge and habitat.

What is the wetland data base?

The Service's Wetlands Geodatabase contains five units (map areas) that are populated with digital vector data and raster images. These units include the conterminous U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Pacific Trust Territories. Each unit of the geodatabase contains seamless digital map data in ArcSDE geodatabase format. Data are in a single standard projection (Albers Equal-Area Conic Projection), horizontal planar units in meters, horizontal planar datum is the North American Datum of 1983 (also called NAD83), and minimum coordinate precision of one centimeter. Links are available to supplemental wetland information and metadata records that are compliant with the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata, Version 2.0. The Wetlands Geodatabase also contains other propriety Service datasets and developmental data, feature classes or information.

Why is the wetlands data layer increasing?

The wetlands data layer is increasing in size each year primarily due to existing analog data being converted to vector or raster images. Contributed data from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Regulatory Database (ORM2), other federal, state and local organizations is also increasing.

How to determine if a wetland is a regulated wetland?

Deciding if a wetland is a regulated wetland depends on classifying the water in it as "water of the United States" or not. Classifying water as "of the U.S." or "not of the U.S." for purposes of enforcing the Clean Water Act suggests a natural boundary that probably does not exist in nature, and one that was not created regarding air for purposes of enforcing the Clean Air Act. Indiana Wetlands are the focus of the U.S. National Wetlands Coalition, which in turn has become the focus of some controversy over "false fronts," a form of political camouflage.

What do red dots mean in wetlands?

Red dots indicate critical wetlands. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 's National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) produces and provides information on the characteristics, extent, and status of U.S. wetlands and deepwater habitats and other wildlife habitats. The NWI also produces periodic reports on the status and trends of wetlands in ...

What is the Indiana wetland?

Indiana Wetlands are the focus of the U.S. National Wetlands Coalition, which in turn has become the focus of some controversy over "false fronts," a form of political camouflage.

How many acres of wetland have been lost since 1978?

The total decline of wetland since 1978 is estimated at 41,000 acres, with the rate of decline slowing between the periods 1978 to 1998 (loss of approximately 1,642 acres per year) and 1998 to 2005 (approximately 1,157 acres per year).

How many acres of wetlands have been destroyed in Michigan?

Since the early 1800s, 40 percent, or 4.273 million acres, of Michigan’s wetlands have been destroyed due to drainage, farming, housing, roads construction, and other development. The Great Lakes watershed has lost 62 percent of its original wetlands, and some parts of this region have lost more than 90 percent of these habitats.

How does wetlands damage the economy?

Wetlands destruction has increased flood and drought damage, nutrient runoff and water pollution, and shoreline erosion, and triggered a decline in wildlife populations. Destruction of wetlands is also detrimental to our region’s economy: recreation like fishing, hunting, and wildlife watching generate more than $22 billion annually.

How can we protect wetlands from development?

Local governments may also take action to protect wetlands from development by enacting ordinances that meet state guidelines. Educating and organizing your community to enact and/or enforce an ordinance is another way of stopping wetland destruction.

What is the highest priority wetland habitat?

Nationally, perhaps the highest priority wetland habitat to protect and restore is the coastal wetland. An effective strategy for protecting coastal wetlands includes a coastal marine spatial planning effort focused on the shared goal of identifying future competitive uses and impacts.

What is the destruction of wetlands?

Destruction of wetlands is a systemic problem that calls for cooperative planning among communities, nonprofit organizations, governments, and industry. In Michigan, land use planning and new development must take into account the essential services of wetlands for preservation and restoration to be successful.

What are the main components of the ecosystem that are destroyed by wetlands?

Wetlands Destruction. Wetlands, or marshes, fens, bogs, and swamps, are the link between land and water. Wetlands include trees, grasses, shrubs, moss, and other plants that require at least some water coverage. Wetlands provide an abundance of essential ecosystem services, including:

How many acres of wetlands were lost in 2013?

December 8, 2013. Over a four-year span, the United States lost more than 360,000 acres of freshwater and saltwater wetlands to fierce storms, sea-level rise and booming development along the coasts, according to a newly released federal study.

How do wetlands die?

As a result, sizeable chunks of wetlands die. Surviving wetlands are battered by rainwater runoff pouring from newly built surfaces such as driveways and roads, and much of that water is polluted with garbage, toxins and fine particle sediment. Wetlands can’t handle the added deluge.

Why are saltwater wetlands important?

Saltwater wetlands help buffer sea surges that cause flooding during powerful storms along the coasts — such as Hurricane Sandy last year — and freshwater wetlands soak up storm-water runoff that often causes sewers to overflow.

Why is there so much grass and forest marsh on the edge of waterways?

The disappearance of so much grass and forest marsh on the edge of waterways is a disturbing sign that government projects to restore wetlands are failing to keep pace , environmentalists said , as storms intensify , the sea level creeps up and development paves the way for rising coastal populations.

What are wetlands converted to?

Across the nation, wetlands have been converted to open water in some places and to mud in others. They include mangrove swamps, salt marshes, freshwater forested swamps, shrub depressions and wetlands floating on the edges of rivers. The disappearance of marshes during the period covered in the study — between 2004 and 2009 — represented ...

How many wetlands were studied?

In order to gauge the status of wetlands, the scientists randomly selected four-square-mile areas and used high-resolution digital images to assess changes. More than 2,600 such areas were studied.

When did marshes disappear?

The disappearance of marshes during the period covered in the study — between 2004 and 2009 — represented a 25 percent increase in the rate of loss in the same areas from the previous survey , which covered the six-year period between 1998 to 2004.

How many acres of wetlands were destroyed in the 1700s?

Restoring Wetlands. A 1990 study by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service revealed a startling fact: more than half of the 221 million acres of wetlands that existed in the lower 48 states in the late 1700s have been destroyed. Since the 1990s, the NPS has operated under a “no-net-loss of wetlands” policy. Under this policy, any construction ...

How have wetlands been damaged?

However, thousands of acres of wetlands in our national parks have been damaged or destroyed by land-use practices and activities that occurred before they became part of the national park system. NPS management policies address this concern with a “net gain of wetlands” goal, to be accomplished through restoration. Specifically, our wetland policies direct parks to identify sites where wetlands have been degraded or lost due to human activities and restore them to their pre-disturbance conditions.

How did the Lower Halstead Meadow restoration work?

Once the bridge was finished in 2012, contractors back-filled the gullies in the lower meadow to restore the original topography and placed alternating strips of erosion control fabric and native sod on the bare soil. The team then released water from the upper meadow under the bridge and onto the lower meadow as sheetflow, which reconnected the two restored areas and reestablished the natural hydrology of Halstead Meadow. The following spring, crews installed thousands of native wetland plants to complete the lower meadow restoration. By 2015, the entire 21-acre wet meadow was once again stable and functioning as it did before the damage occurred.

Why were the ditches removed from Palo Alto Battlefield?

At Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park in Texas, man-made drainage ditches, levees and stock ponds were removed in 2017 to help re-establish the wetland and prairie landscape that existed at the time of the 1846 battle .

How many yards of mine waste was used to build the sedge meadow?

Under the direction of the design team, contractors used heavy equipment to reshape more than 268,000 cubic yards of mine waste to create the contours specified in the grading plan. Crews then installed thousands of willow cuttings and hundreds of thousands of wetland plants to create 50 acres of sedge meadows, willow flats, stream channels, oxbow ponds, and upland features. Grizzly bears, moose, bison, trumpeter swans, sandhill cranes, western boreal toads and many other wildlife species now inhabit the restored site.

When is World Water Day?

Celebrate the importance of water on World Water Day, March 22. Have you ever wondered how water shapes national parks? Or what animals rely on water for habitat?

When was the Snake River closed?

Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway, primarily for road projects on federal lands. Closure of this gravel pit in 1992 left over 60 acres of poorly vegetated waste piles and steep-walled borrow ponds ...

How many acres of wetlands were lost between 2004 and 2009?

Between 2004 and 2009, an estimated 62,300 acres of wetlands were lost in the conterminous United States. 10 Various factors have contributed to the decline in the loss rate including implementation and enforcement of wetland protection measures and elimination of some incentives for wetland drainage. Public education and outreach about the value and functions of wetlands, private land initiatives, coastal monitoring and protection programs, and wetland restoration and creation actions have also helped reduce overall wetland losses.

How many acres of wetlands were there in the 1600s?

In the 1600s, over 220 million acres of wetlands are thought to have existed in the lower 48 states. 8 Since then, extensive losses have occurred, and over half of our original wetlands in the lower 48 have been drained and converted to other uses. 9 The years from the mid-1950s to the mid- 1970s were a time of major wetland loss, but since then the rate of loss has decreased.

What are the causes of the decline of bird populations?

The increase in flood damages, drought damages, and the declining bird populations are, in part, the result of wetlands degradation and destruction. Wetlands have been degraded in ways that are not as obvious as direct physical destruction or degradation. Other threats have included chemical contamination, excess nutrients, ...

Do wetlands suffer from degradation?

In addition to these losses, many other wetlands have suffered degradation of functions, although calculating the magnitude of the degradation is difficult.

When was the first wetlands protected?

Legal Protections of Wetlands: The first legal protection of wetlands came from President Jimmy Carter in 1977.

What is a wetland?

Wetland Definition: Wetlands are defined differently by different people and different government agencies; but there are three factors of commonality in these various definitions. Wetlands can be defined by having wetland vegetation (hydrophytes); hydric soils, and wetland hydrology. As used by the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), “wetland” is defined in regulations, 16 U.S.C. Section 3801 (a) (27) : “as land that has –

What are the two programs that NRCS administers to help the wetlands?

Congress responded to these alarming figures by passing two critical wetland conservation and restoration Federal programs administered by NRCS to slow or reverse these alarming trends. These two programs are the Wetland Conservation Provisions ( WC) which was authorized in the 1985 Farm Bill, and the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) which was later authorized in the 1990 Farm Bill. Enactment of the 1985 Farm Bill dramatically reduced agricultural impacts when compared to pre-1985 wetland impacts. Through these two programs, NRCS works with farmers and ranchers to maintain or increase important wetland benefits, while ensuring their ability to continue to produce food and fiber.

What are some examples of non-tidal wetlands?

Some examples of non-tidal wetlands are Prairie Potholes, Peat Bogs, Fens, Playas, Mountain Meadows, and Riverine wetlands on floodplains. Sometimes these non-tidal wetlands are called “upland wetlands”, “fresh water wetlands”, or “inland wetlands” to designate them as occurring in areas not influenced directly by coastal waters.

What are the benefits of wetlands?

They also benefit society by storing floodwaters, filtering pollutants, serving as a carbon sink, and providing recreation sites for boating and fishing, just to name a few. There are three major groups ...

When did the Bush administration start the National Policy of No Net Loss of Wetland?

He signed Executive Order 11990 into law requiring Federal government agencies to take steps to avoid impacts to wetland when possible. Then, in 1989 President George H. W. Bush established the National policy of “no-net loss of wetlands”.

Where do wetlands occur?

Marine wetlands occur in coastal shallows. Tidal wetlands also occur in coastal areas but inland from the ocean. These are often referred to as estuaries and are affected by tides. Non-tidal wetlands occur inland and are not subject to tidal influences. These account for 94% of all the wetlands in the United States.

Overview

Wetlands loss in the United States

Since the 16th century, more than half of the estimated original 220,000,000+ acres of U.S. wetlands (not including Alaska) have been degraded or destroyed.

National Wetlands Inventory

Geodatabase characteristics and status

Geospatial data status - wetlands

See also

External links