Wetlands of the United States

Last updated
Among the Salt Marsh Nature Center, in Brooklyn, NY SlatMarshBLUE1602.jpg
Among the Salt Marsh Nature Center, in Brooklyn, NY
Wetlands protected by steel fence, San Francisco, CA Overly Protected Wetlands.jpg
Wetlands protected by steel fence, San Francisco, CA

Wetlands of the United States are defined by the United States Army Corps of Engineers and the United States Environmental Protection Agency as "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 vegetations typically adapted for life in saturated soils. Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar areas." [1] [2] [3] 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. [4] They also contribute the functions of flood control, providing a nutrient sink, groundwater recharge and habitat. [5]

Contents

The United States is a signatory to the Ramsar Convention, an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands. Under the Swampbuster provisions of the Food Securities Act of 1985, farmers who modify existing wetlands may lose their benefits under the USDA farm program. Additionally, every Presidential administration since George H.W. Bush has operated under a "no net loss" of wetlands federal policy goal.

In the United States, some wetlands are regulated by the federal government under the Clean Water Act. Determining the boundary between regulated wetlands and non-regulated lands therefore can be contentious. In reality, there is no natural boundary between the classes that humans define on these gradients (wetland/upland), and this issue is highlighted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's definition from Classification of Wetlands and Deepwater Habitats of the United States, which defines wetlands as "lands transitional between terrestrial and aquatic systems." Regulations to protect water quality and highway safety require that we create arbitrary boundaries within those gradients, but these boundaries are scientifically definable, and consist of areas where three criterion of the presence of hydric soils, the presence of wetland vegetation, and the presence of appropriate hydrology.

Such regulations must be predictable, reproducible, and enforced otherwise there will be a sacrifice of clean water for development in the case of wetlands regulation (or vice versa), or sacrifice safe travel for quick travel (or vice versa) in the case of speed limits. Determining which wetlands are regulated under section 404 of the Clean Water Act [6] or Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act is termed "jurisdictional determination". Determining the boundary of wetland, whether jurisdictional under sections 404 or 10, or not jurisdictional but still meeting the technical definition of a wetland, that is having the soils, vegetation and hydrology criterion met is called a "wetland delineation", and generally is performed by college graduates with natural science or biology degrees working for engineering firms or environmental consulting firms who are familiar with the 1987 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Wetland delineation manual.

Defining a boundary depends upon the ground and vegetation characteristics; it is easier to do where the slope of the land is steeper. 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.

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. [7]

National Wetlands Inventory

Major remaining wetlands of the United States. Red dots indicate critical wetlands. US Wetlands.svg
Major remaining wetlands of the United States. 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 the conterminous U.S. The NWI website includes a Wetlands Mapper. [8]

The Wetlands Geodatabase and the Wetlands Mapper, as an Internet discovery portal, provide technological tools that allow the integration of large relational databases with spatial information and map-like displays. The information is made available to an array of federal, state, tribal, and local governments and the public. The Service's wetlands data forms a layer of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) and is an important component of Department's geospatial line of business portfolio and actively supports the E-government initiative through the Geospatial One- Stop and The National Map. [9]

Geodatabase characteristics and status

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 proprietary Service datasets and developmental data, feature classes or information.

The Wetlands Geodatabase is one of the world's largest polygonal datasets (in the civilian sector). The information is increasingly popular and widely used to help identify, conserve, and restore wetland resources across the American landscape. During 2008, the number of website user requests for data exceeded 56.9 million. The Service continues to point large data users to the Web Map Service (WMS) capability. This option provides Federal and State agencies as well as large institutional users an opportunity to establish Open Geographic Consortium (OGC) linkages to ensure they are getting the latest and most complete digital data set. There were also 867 technical assistance requests in 2008.

Geospatial data status - wetlands

In 2008, data covering 66,200,000 acres (268,000 km2) were added to the Wetlands Geodatabase. These included 28,100,000 acres (114,000 km2) of updated wetland map information, new data for 6,800,000 acres (28,000 km2) not previously available and 31,300,000 acres (127,000 km2) of data that were captured in digital format. An additional 8,245 hard copy maps (quadrangles) were added as raster image files.

Currently the Wetlands Geodatabase contains over 34,500 7.5 minute map areas in a seamless ArcSDE geodatabase format. This represents wetland map data for approximately 64 percent of the conterminous U.S., 30 percent of Alaska, 100 percent of the windward islands of Hawaii, 77 percent of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands and, 100 percent of Guam and Saipan in the Pacific Trust Territories. By the end of 2008, the Wetlands Geodatabase contained 67 gigabytes of data, including 14.9 million polygonal features. The current status of on-line wetlands data is shown in figure 1.

Web accessible geospatial wetlands data can be found at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife website. Additional web accessible Geodatabase documentation and information can be found in the Appendix on page 11.

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), [10] other federal, state and local organizations is also increasing. More and newer data will need to come from other sources in the future to achieve the goals of producing a complete data layer for the Nation and keeping it current.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geographic information system</span> System to capture, manage, and present geographic data

A geographic information system (GIS) consists of integrated computer hardware and software that store, manage, analyze, edit, output, and visualize geographic data. Much of this often happens within a spatial database; however, this is not essential to meet the definition of a GIS. In a broader sense, one may consider such a system also to include human users and support staff, procedures and workflows, the body of knowledge of relevant concepts and methods, and institutional organizations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States Army Corps of Engineers</span> Direct reporting unit and U.S. Armys branch for military engineering

The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil works. USACE has 37,000 civilian and military personnel, making it one of the world's largest public engineering, design, and construction management agencies. The USACE workforce is approximately 97% civilian, 3% active duty military. The civilian workforce is primarily located in the United States, Europe and in select Middle East office locations. Civilians do not function as active duty military and are not required to be in active war and combat zones, however volunteer opportunities do exist for civilians to do so.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Esri</span> Geospatial software & SaaS company

Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., doing business as Esri, is an American multinational geographic information system (GIS) software company headquartered in Redlands, California. It is best known for its ArcGIS products. With a 40% market share in 2011, Esri is one of the world's leading supplier of GIS software, web GIS and geodatabase management applications.

A GIS file format is a standard for encoding geographical information into a computer file, as a specialized type of file format for use in geographic information systems (GIS) and other geospatial applications. Since the 1970s, dozens of formats have been created based on various data models for various purposes. They have been created by government mapping agencies, GIS software vendors, standards bodies such as the Open Geospatial Consortium, informal user communities, and even individual developers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clean Water Act</span> 1972 U.S. federal law regulating water pollution

The Clean Water Act (CWA) is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution. Its objective is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters; recognizing the responsibilities of the states in addressing pollution and providing assistance to states to do so, including funding for publicly owned treatment works for the improvement of wastewater treatment; and maintaining the integrity of wetlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge</span> United States National Wildlife Refuge in Florida

The Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge is a 145,188-acre (587.55 km2) wildlife sanctuary is located west of Boynton Beach, in Palm Beach County, Florida. It is also known as Water Conservation Area 1 (WCA-1). It includes the most northern remnant of the historic Everglades wetland ecosystem.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Impervious surface</span> Artificial structures such as pavements covered with water-tight materials

Impervious surfaces are mainly artificial structures—such as pavements that are covered by water-resistant materials such as asphalt, concrete, brick, stone—and rooftops. Soils compacted by urban development are also highly impervious.

Hydric soil is soil which is permanently or seasonally saturated by water, resulting in anaerobic conditions, as found in wetlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rough River</span> River in Kentucky, United States

The Rough River is a 136-mile-long (219 km) tributary of the Green River in west-central Kentucky in the United States. It's located about 70 miles southwest of Louisville, and flows through Breckinridge, Hardin, Grayson, and Ohio counties. Via the Green and Ohio rivers, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River. According to the Geographic Names Information System, it has also been known historically as "Rough Creek". In the 1950s it was dammed, creating Rough River Lake.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laguna de Santa Rosa</span> River in California, United States

The Laguna de Santa Rosa is a 22-mile-long (35 km) wetland complex that drains a 254-square-mile (660 km2) watershed encompassing most of the Santa Rosa Plain in Sonoma County, California, United States.

A geographic data model, geospatial data model, or simply data model in the context of geographic information systems, is a mathematical and digital structure for representing phenomena over the Earth. Generally, such data models represent various aspects of these phenomena by means of geographic data, including spatial locations, attributes, change over time, and identity. For example, the vector data model represents geography as collections of points, lines, and polygons, and the raster data model represent geography as cell matrices that store numeric values. Data models are implemented throughout the GIS ecosystem, including the software tools for data management and spatial analysis, data stored in a variety of GIS file formats, specifications and standards, and specific designs for GIS installations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act</span>

The Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA) is a 1990 United States federal law that provides funds for wetland enhancement. The law is implemented by federal and state agencies, focusing on restoration of lost wetlands of the Gulf Coast, as well as protecting the wetlands from future deterioration. The scope of the mission is not simply for the restoration of wetlands in Louisiana, but also the research and implementation of preventative measures for wetlands preservation

Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County (SWANCC) v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 531 U.S. 159 (2001), was a decision by the US Supreme Court that interpreted a provision of the Clean Water Act. Section 404 of the Act requires permits for the discharge of dredged or fill materials into "navigable waters," which is defined by the Act as "waters of the United States." That provision was the basis for the federal wetlands-permitting program.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">No net loss policy in the United States</span> Environmental policy goal for wetland conservation in the United States

"No net loss" is the United States government's overall policy goal regarding wetlands preservation. The goal of the policy is to balance wetland loss due to economic development with wetlands reclamation, mitigation, and restorations efforts, so that the total acreage of wetlands in the country does not decrease, but remains constant or increases.

The National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) was established by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to conduct a nationwide inventory of U.S. wetlands to provide biologists and others with information on the distribution and type of wetlands to aid in conservation efforts. To do this, the NWI developed a wetland classification system that is now the official FWS wetland classification system and the Federal standard for wetland classification. The NWI also developed techniques for mapping and recording the inventory findings. The NWI relies on trained image analysts to identify and classify wetlands and deepwater habitats from aerial imagery. NWI started mapping wetlands at a small scale. Eventually, large-scale maps became the standard product delivered by NWI. As computerized mapping and geospatial technology evolved, NWI discontinued production of paper maps in favor of distributing data via online "mapping tools" where information can be viewed and downloaded. Today, FWS serves its data via an on-line data discovery "Wetlands Mapper". GIS users can access wetlands data through an online wetland mapping service or download data for various applications. The techniques used by NWI have recently been adopted by the Federal Geographic Data Committee as the federal wetland mapping standard. This standard applies to all federal grants involving wetland mapping to insure the data can be added to the Wetlands Layer of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure. NWI also produces national wetlands status and trends reports required by the United States Congress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gardena Willows Wetland Preserve</span> Remnant of Dominguez Slough

The Gardena Willows Wetland Preserve occupies 13.6 acres (55,000 m2) of land owned by the City of Gardena, in Los Angeles County, California. The preserve is the last intact remnant of the former Dominguez Slough, an important vernal marsh and riparian forest with riparian zones that once covered as much as 400 acres (1,600,000 m2) of this area, known as the South Bay region. The preserve has 9.4 acres (38,000 m2) of wetland and 4.2 acres (17,000 m2) of upland. The wetlands have a natural depression where water remains for such a significant time that plants and animals not adapted to water and saturated soils cannot survive. The upland, which remains dry outside of the rainy season, supports plants which thrive with these drier conditions. The slough is a part of the Dominguez Watershed, 96% of which is now covered with concrete and man-made structures. Located on the traditional lands of the Tongva, it is believed that these indigenous people were able to commute by canoe around much of the area. Tongva villages were located throughout much of what is now Los Angeles and Orange Counties as well as three southern Channel Islands as distant as 60 miles (97 km) from the coast of Los Angeles County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wetland conservation in the United States</span>

Over the past 200 years, the United States has lost more than 50% of its wetlands. And even with the current focus on wetland conservation, the US is losing about 60,000 acres (240 km2) of wetlands per year. However, from 1998 to 2004 the United States managed a net gain of 191,750 acres (776.0 km2) of wetlands . The past several decades have seen an increasing number of laws and regulations regarding wetlands, their surroundings, and their inhabitants, creating protections through several different outlets. Some of the most important have been and are the Migratory Bird Act, Swampbuster, and the Clean Water Act.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clean Water Rule</span> 2015 EPA regulation

The Clean Water Rule is a 2015 regulation published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to clarify water resource management in the United States under a provision of the Clean Water Act of 1972. The regulation defined the scope of federal water protection in a more consistent manner, particularly over streams and wetlands which have a significant hydrological and ecological connection to traditional navigable waters, interstate waters, and territorial seas. It is also referred to as the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule, which defines all bodies of water that fall under U.S. federal jurisdiction. The rule was published in response to concerns about lack of clarity over the act's scope from legislators at multiple levels, industry members, researchers and other science professionals, activists, and citizens.

Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency, 598 U.S. 651 (2023), also known as Sackett II, was a United States Supreme Court case related to the scope of the Clean Water Act.

A Geodatabase is a proprietary GIS file format developed in the late 1990s by Esri to represent, store, and organize spatial datasets within a geographic information system. A geodatabase is both a logical data model and the physical implementation of that logical model in several proprietary file formats released during the 2000s. The geodatabase design is based on the spatial database model for storing spatial data in relational and object-relational databases. Given the dominance of Esri in the GIS industry, the term "geodatabase" is used by some as a generic trademark for any spatial database, regardless of platform or design.

References

  1. Definition from Corps of Engineers, Wetlands Delineation Manual, by Environmental Laboratory, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Waterways Experiment Station, 3909 Halls Ferry Road, Vicksburg, MS 39180-6199
  2. 42 Federal Register 37125-26, 37128-29. 1977-07-19. via Gingras, Glenn (2006-08-21). "VTrans Proposal" (PDF). Retrieved 2008-01-19.
  3. "Classification and Types of Wetlands". 9 April 2015.
  4. "Functions and Values of Wedlands" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-02-06. Retrieved 2011-02-07.
  5. "No Net Loss – Instrument Choice in Wetlands Protection" (PDF). Retrieved 2023-10-28.
  6. "Section 404 of the Clean Water Act: How Wetlands are Defined and Identified". Wetlands fact sheet. EPA. 2006-02-22. Retrieved 2008-01-19.
  7. "How Does EPA Keep Track of the Status and Trends of Wetlands in the US?". 31 August 2015.
  8. "Geospatial Wetlands Digital Data". Archived from the original on 2009-01-17. Retrieved 2008-08-26.
  9. National Spatial Data Infrastructure
  10. Utilizing New Technology and GIS to Improve Permitting Programs