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...