Wetland Preservation

             Our nation and planet face many problems. Some are of great
             immediate significance and others we are just beginning to understand the
             depth of. The preservation of our nations wetlands seems to fit the second
             category. This paper will deal with what the author considers to be a three
             part problem. First, defining wetlands, and explaining the controversy that
             surrounds them. Second, fixing the legal issues dealing with wetland
             regulation. Finally, learning how to communicate to the general public what is
             Wetlands are lowlands which are waterlogged or covered with shallow
             or temporary waters. They may be marshes, swamps, bogs, fens, wet
             meadows, potholes, sloughs, or river-overflow lands (Cowardin). Wetlands are
             a natural resource, supporting a vast and diverse range of plant and animal
             life, the full value of which is only beginning to be accounted. Settlers of the
             New World did not at first seek out the generous endowment of wetlands they
             found on this continent and generally regarded them as "wastelands", an
             epithet which persists in the minds of many people today (Key). Although the
             pace of exploitation of wetland resources perhaps did not parallel that of the
             felling of virgin timber or the breaking of the prairies, they now constitute one
             of the last frontiers of unutilized land and, for this reason, are dwindling in
             acreage faster than any other ecological system. The original wetland assets of
             the United States are estimated to have been 127 million acres, of which
             about 115 million acres were lost to drainage, filling, or flooding by 1955
             (Lyons). (Much of this 127 million acres was located around the Gulf Coast
             area.) There still remains a body of this habitat of sufficient diversity and
             distribution to support a continental waterfowl population, various fur animals,
             farm and forest game, and warm-water fish of great economic and social
             value, as well as a rich n...

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Wetland Preservation. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 06:42, March 29, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/57925.html