that has on-farm wetlands. There were 78.4 million acres of non-Federal wetlands 

 remaining in 1982. However, only 17 million have some probability of being 

 converted to cropland. On about 6 million of these, swampbuster is likely to 

 be effective, but on the remaining 11 million acres, conversion and drainage will 

 not be impeded by swampbuster. Thus Heimlich concludes that swampbuster must 

 be supplemented by other programs and measures if the Nation's on-farm wetlands 

 are to be preserved. 



88. Leitch, J. A., and K.L. Grosz. 1988. Wetlands and agriculture in 

 transition: a look at wetlands protection in North Dakota. Pages 95-98 

 in P.J. Stuber, coordinator. Proceedings of the national symposium on 

 protection of wetlands from agricultural impacts. U.S. Fish and Wildlife 

 Service Biological Report 88(16). Washington, DC. 



North Dakota has been a hotbed of opposition to Federal programs to 

 conserve prairie pothole wetlands. The authors looked at the potential impact 

 of swampbuster on farmland drainage of prairie pothole wetlands in North Dakota. 

 They also noted the widespread controversy that the swampbuster provisions of 

 the Food Security Act of 1985 have created in North Dakota. Swampbuster upset 

 North Dakota State legislators and their constituents; in a legislative effort 

 to exempt the State's farmers from the provisions of swampbuster, North Dakota 

 passed a no-net-wetlands-loss farm bill that requires acre-for-acre restoration 

 of drained wetlands. The law becomes effective if the swampbuster sanctions 

 are relaxed for North Dakota. 



Historic county average prices make drainage profitable in central North 

 Dakota grain (barley and wheat) cropland. However, Leitch suggests that the net 

 effect of the 1985 Farm Bill will be to lower grain prices so much that drainage 

 will typically be unprofitable unless the farmers who drain receive Federal crop 

 support payments. Hence Leitch concludes that the swampbuster sanctions will 

 provide a strong sanction against on-farm drainage of wetlands as long as 

 agricultural crop prices are low. 



89. Leitch, J. A. 1989. Pol iticoeconomic overview of prairie potholes. Pages 

 2-14 in A. Van Der Valk, ed. Northern prairie wetlands. Iowa State 

 University Press, Ames. 



This is a brief overview of the prairie pothole allocation problem that 

 is enlivened by some specific examples of government mismanagement on the part 

 of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Prior to 1976, easements purchased by 

 the Service on lands described by the township-range system did not specify the 

 extent or the location of wetlands within blocks of easement purchase lands. 

 Leitch asserts that this caused numerous legal problems and a diminished 

 reputation for the Service among local residents. The prairie pothole allocation 

 problem, like the wetlands allocation issue, is primarily one of allocating a 

 resource that provides high public benefits but low private benefits. Conversion 

 of on-farm prairie pothole wetlands produces croplands, a resource which provides 

 sizeable returns to private ownership. Reconciling the divergence between public 

 and private ownership for the wetland allocation issue is not easy; Leitch, who 

 resides in the prairie pothole region, is particularly adept at focusing on the 

 vacuity of various wetlands preservations efforts that are not sensitive to the 

 regional versus national interest dichotomy. He believes that an approach that 



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