CRS-65 



have little or no value in their natural condition. 58/ One Federal report 

 contained case studies of converting wetland areas to other uses including 

 agriculture, forestry, residences, transportation, industry, and, in recent 

 years, recreation. 59/ The rate of conversion has varied with private and 

 public incentives, but the capability to alter wetlands has accelerated with 

 technological and engineering advances. Waterfront property which is more 

 desirable for some uses, such as second homes, can now be more easily modified. 

 In some urbanized areas, including New York and Los Angeles, as the available 

 upland sites have been built up, wetland sites, the least expensive remaining 

 large tracts of undeveloped land, have become Increasingly desirable. The 

 Fish and Wildlife Service estimated that the coterminous United States had lost 

 45 million of an estimated original 127 million acres of wetlands by 1956. 60 / 



Other surveys of smaller areas show a more rapid loss rate during this cen- 

 tury, especially since World War II. An estimated 45 percent of Connecticut's 



58 / The present U.S. Army Corps of Engineers regulations for permiting 

 actions in wetlands under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act recognize the 

 eight functions of wetlands listed in footnote 10. By contrast, 25 years ago, 

 about the only function ascribed to wetlands in national policy was habitat 

 for waterfowl. The only Federal agency concerned with protecting wetlands 

 25 years ago was the Fish and Wildlife Service. Its limited interests were 

 defined in: Wetlands of the United States, Circular 39, published in 1956. 

 More recently, the Fish and Wildlife Service has continued to recognize a 

 limited number of reasons to protect wetlands. As recently as a 1967 publi- 

 cation, entitled, Your Stake in Wetlands (Circular 140), the Service recog- 

 nized functional values to include only waterfowl, wetland big game, fur, 

 and fisheries. 



59 / Horwitz, Our Nation's Wetlands, p. 22-46. 



60 / U.S. Department of the Interior. Fish and Wildlife Service. Wet- 

 lands of the United States: Their Extent and Their Value to Waterfowl and 

 Other Wildlife, Circular 39. Prepared by Samuel P. Shaw and C. Gordon Fredine. 

 Washington, U.S. Govt, Print. Off., 1956. p. 7. 



