CRS-100 



form in 1980, new guidelines for protection of wetlands and riparian areas on 

 public lands under its jurisdiction. The guidelines address several topics, 

 including methods to protect and enhance wetlands and wetland management 

 practices. Management practices include use of buffer strips, designations of 

 critical environmental areas, public land withdrawal, and managing such common 

 practices as grazing and timber harvesting. 142 / 



Adverse Effects of Other Federal Programs 



At the same time that the Federal programs discussed above are operating 

 to protect wetlands, paradoxically, a number of other Federal programs are 

 contributing to degradation of wetlands and water quality, by encouraging 

 conversion of wetlands for alternative land use practices. These include 

 various agricultural subsidies, price supports, low interest loans, and flood 

 control projects for agricultural development in floodplain areas. 



For example, the Farmers Home Administration makes grants and low interest 

 loans to promote agricultural development, much of which has led to losses of 

 bottomland hardwood forests in the Lower Mississippi Valley. The Department 

 of Agriculture provides crop subsidies which can influence conversion of nat- 

 ural bottomlands to farmland, as well as increase water pollution. Likewise, 

 flood protection programs of the Soil Conservation Service and of the Corps 

 itself have modified or eliminated many floodplains wetlands through alter- 

 ations to the hydraulic/hydrologic regime. Thus, the national programs that 



142/ U.S. Department of the Interior. Bureau of Land Management. Wet- 

 lands — Riparian Area Protection and Management; Policy and Protection Pro- 

 cedures; Final Guidelines. Federal Register, v. 45, no. 25, Feb. 5, 1980. 

 p. 7889-7895. 



