18 • Wetlands: Their Use and Regulation 



the current effects of major policies and programs 



on wetlands. Whether or not additional informa- 

 tion should be collected depends on a judgment 

 about its potential contribution to Congress' poli- 

 cymaking capability and its value to Federal pro- 

 gram administrators. For some people, the avail- 

 able information may be adequate for setting pres- 

 ent and future wedand policy. Further information, 

 while perhaps useful in fine-tuning policies, may 

 seem unwarranted given the cost. In this case, op- 

 tion 1 might be selected. On the other hand, exist- 

 ing uncertainties may make it difficult to isolate 

 realistic policy choices and to determine the effect 

 of these options. For instance, it may be difficult 

 for some to decide what changes, if any, should be 

 made to section 404 without better knowing how 

 the current program has affected trends in wetland 

 use. In this latter case, option 2 could be selected. 



Option 1: No, current information is adequate. 



For some policymakers, existing information 

 may be adequate to make present and future deci- 

 sions about wedand policies and programs. Some 

 new information will be collected as the result of 

 existing Federal programs. In particular, FWS is 

 planning to update its analysis of national trends 

 to cover the 10-year period following the mid- 

 1970's. Also, EPA, FWS, NMFS, and the Corps 

 will continue to conduct research on wedand values. 



Option 2: Yes, collect additional information. 



For other policymakers, making decisions about 

 wetland policies and programs may be difficult at 

 this time because of major gaps in technical infor- 

 mation. Past efforts have primarily supported the 

 missions of the agencies conducting the research, 

 rather than the policymaking process. Congress' 

 policymaking capability could be significantly im- 

 proved if the three concurrent research elements 

 described below were undertaken. To ensure that 

 the results produced by these efforts are brought 

 to bear on the overall policymaking process, an in- 

 tegrated plan (with budgets and schedules) for con- 

 ducting and coordinating all these policy-related ac- 

 tivities could be developed by an interagency 

 working group headed by a Federal agency. This 

 information would not necessarily be available un- 

 less Congress takes steps to ensure its collection. 



Element 1: Determine recent trends of wet- 

 land use. — The FWS's recently completed statis- 

 tical analysis of wetland trends provides informa- 

 tion on wetland use only between the mid- 1 950' s 

 and the mid-1970's. As currently planned, FWS 

 will update its analysis of national trends to cover 

 the 10-year period following the mid-1970's. How- 

 ever, better information on regional trends could 

 be collected to determine where wedand-conversion 

 rates are most critical and where development pres- 

 sures are greatest. Such regional analyses would en- 

 tail an increase in the number of sites surveyed. 



Element 2: Evaluate the significance of addi- 

 tional wetland conversions. — The extent to which 

 the environment will be degraded by additional 

 conversions of wedands is known only in a few 

 cases. For example, if all the prairie potholes in the 

 upper Midwest were lost, we know that North 

 American duck populations would decrease by 

 about half. On the other hand, we do not know the 

 importance of wedand-derived detritus for estuarine 

 fish and shellfish populations relative to other 

 sources of food, such as algae and detritus from up- 

 land areas. Yet this type of information provides 

 a technical basis for changing levels of protection 

 for specific types of wetlands. A detailed under- 

 standing of all wedand systems in the United States 

 is not necessary; much could be learned from a 

 small number of long-term studies of wetland sys- 

 tems within specific physiographic regions, river 

 basins, or estuaries. 



Element 3: Further analyze the effect of ma- 

 jor policies and programs on wetlands use. — Ad- 

 ditional analysis by an interagency working group 

 on the effects of Federal and State wedand programs 

 on wetland trends could provide a basis for modi- 

 fying existing programs, especially in light of the 

 results of the two options just discussed. For ex- 

 ample, the Corps could compile more thorough in- 

 formation on project acreages and types of wedands 

 impacted. In addition, a detailed evaluation of the 

 capabilities and limitations of State programs, in- 

 dividually and in combination with the 404 pro- 

 gram, could indicate possible ways of improving 

 the efficency and effectiveness of different programs 

 that have a major effect on wetlands. 



