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in 1975, the Department of the Interior revised its wetland acquisition goal 



and identified an additional 1.3 million acres of prime waterfowl habitat. 



The Department stated that one-half of this revised goal, or 1.9 million acres, 



would be acquired by June 1976, when authorizations under the 1961 Act were 



due to expire. According to the Department, that acreage represented the 



most vital habitat for continental waterfowl and areas that were the most 



vulnerable to destruction or severe adverse modification. 172 / 



Therefore, the legislation enacted in 1976 increased authorizations under 



the Act from $105 million to $200 million and provided a seven-year extension 



to the wetlands acquisition provisions. In its report accompanying the legislation, 



the Senate Committee on Commerce discussed the importance of continuing the 



wetland acquisition program. 



The need to prevent irreversible damage to (or loss of) wetlands 

 breeding areas and other habitat areas for waterfowl Is at least 

 as great as it was in 1961, when the Wetlands Loan Act of 1961 was 

 enacted. Wetlands are disappearing at an ever-increasing rate, and 

 the cost of acquisition of the remaining wetlands is increasing. 



* * * 



Wetlands are not wasteland. The draining, filling, diking, impound- 

 ing, and altering of wetlands as part of some "development" does 

 not result in eliminating wasteland, but in destroying land vital 

 to the ecosystem which supports mankind. 173 / 



Extension of the acquisition program was seen as perhaps the principal 



means of enabling the Fish and Wildlife Service to protect migratory birds and 



the lands needed for their nesting and wintering areas, including bottomland 



hardwood habitat areas in the Mississippi River Delta and flood plains of 



the Southeast from Kentucky to the Gulf Coast. 174 / 



172 / U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce. Wetlands Loan Extension 

 Act of 1976. Report to Accompany H.R. 5608. Senate Report no. 594, 94th Cong., 

 2d Sess. Washington, U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1976. p. 2. 



173/ Ibid., p. 4. 



174 / Ibid., p. 15. 



