28 



CURRENT STATUS AND TRENDS 

 OF U.S. WETLANDS 



Current Status 



Wetlands exist in every state and their abundance var- 

 ies due to climate, soils, geology, land use and other 

 regional differences. Figure 25 shows the estimated ex- 

 tent of wetlands within each of the 50 states. Alaska, 

 Louisiana, and Florida contain the most wetland acreage. 

 Other states with considerable acreage include Alabama. 

 Arkansas, Georgia, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mis- 

 sissippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Wisconsin. 

 Smaller states like Delaware and New Jersey are also well 

 represented by wetlands. 



In the mid-1970's, an estimated 99 million acres of 

 wetlands existed in the conterminous United States 



(Frayer, et al. 1983). This amounts to an area equal to the 

 size of California. Only 5% of the land surface of the 

 lower 48 states contains wetland. Alaska and Hawaii are 

 not included in these figures. Estimates of Alaska's wet- 

 land resource vary, but 200 million acres probably exist. 

 The abundance of major wetland types in the conter- 

 minous U.S. is shown in Figure 26. Palustrine wetlands, 

 including freshwater marshes and swamps, comprise 

 94% of the wetlands in the lower 48 states. In the mid- 

 1970"s, 93.7 million acres of palustrine wetlands were 

 present, with over half of this acreage being forested 

 wetland and about a third being emergent wetland. Re- 

 maining palustrine wetland acreage equals an area about 

 the size of California. By contrast, only 5.2 million acres 

 of estuarine wetlands existed by the mid-1970"s. This 

 amounts to an area approximately the size of Massachu- 

 setts and represents only 0.3% of the land surface of the 

 lower 48 states. 





, , , . OF M £ X ; C ( ) 



LEGEND 



I I Less than 5% 



5-15% 

 15-250/0 

 Greater than 25% 



Fig. 25. Relative abundance of wetlands in the U.S. (1984). Percent of each state represented by wetland is shown. 



