34 



although they are protected to varying degrees by the 

 Federal government through the Clean Water Act and by 

 a few states with wetland protection laws. Urbanization 

 seriously threatens inland wetlands in northern New Jer- 

 sey and near other growing urban centers. Peat mining 

 and resort development are major causes of wetland 

 losses in the Pocono Region of Pennsylvania. Agricultur- 

 al impacts are greatest in the bottomland hardwood 

 swamps of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia and in New 

 York's mucklands. 



Agricultural drainage of wetlands is continuing to de- 

 stroy large tracts of wetlands in the Southeast, especially 

 in the Lower Mississippi Delta, Florida, and along the 

 coastal plain of North Carolina. Bottomland hardwoods 

 are being clearcut for timber, and then cleared and 

 drained for crop production, chiefly soybeans. Pocosin 

 wetlands are similarly used as well as being mined for 

 peat. Many inland wetlands are being converted to pine 



plantations throughout the Southeast. Phosphate mining 

 in Florida and North Carolina is destroying considerable 

 wetland acreage. Puerto Rico's inland marshes ("savan- 

 nahs") are being transformed into sugar cane farms. 

 Coastal wetland destruction has slowed in most states 

 with passage of protection laws, but enforcement may 

 present problems. 



Agricultural development in the Midwest com belt and 

 Great Plains remains the greatest threat, by far, to the 

 remaining inland wetlands. Coastal marshes along the 

 Great Lakes are continuing to be impacted by industrial, 

 residential, and agricultural development. Although sev- 

 eral of the Midwestern states have laws protecting certain 

 wetlands or regulating certain activities in wetlands, agri- 

 cultural drainage is still largely unregulated. 



In the western states, agricultural development remains 

 the primary threat to wetlands. Drainage and irrigation 

 impacts, such as the Garrison Diversion, continue at high 



Table 3. Examples of wetland losses in various states. 



State or Region 

 Iowa's Natural Marshes 

 California 



Nebraska's Rainwater Basin 

 Mississippi Alluvial Plain 

 Michigan 



North Dakota 



Minnesota 



Louisiana's Forested Wetlands 

 Connecticut's Coastal Marshes 

 North Carolina's Pocosins 

 South Dakota 



Wisconsin 



Original 



Wetlands 



(acres) 



2.333,000 



5.000.000 



94.000 



5.000.000 



Today's 



Wetlands 



(acres) 



26.470 



450.000 



8.460 



24.000.000 5,200,000 

 11.200.000 3.200,000 



1,000,000 



18,400,000 8.700,000 



11.300.000 5.635.000 



30.000 15.000 



2,500.000 1.503.000* 



2,000,000 1,300,000 



7c of 



Wetlands 



Lost 



99 



91 



91 

 78 

 71 



60 



53 

 50 

 50 

 40 



35 



32 



Soiace 



Bishop (1981. pers. comm.) 



U.S. Fish and Wildlife 

 Service (1977) 



Farrar (1982) 



MacDonald, et al. (1979) 



Michigan Department of 

 Nat'! Res. (1982) 



Elliott, U.S. FWS, 

 (pers. comm.) 



Univ. of Minn. (1981) 



Turner and Craig (1980) 



Niering (1982) 



Richardson, et al. (1981) 



Elliott. U.S. FWS. 

 (pers. comm.) 



Wisconsin Dept. of Nat. Res. 

 (1976) 



10.000.000 6.750.000 

 *Only 695.000 acres of pocosins remain undisturbed; the rest are partially drained, developed or planned for development 



