49 



STATEMENT OF AMOS S. ENO 

 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 

 NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION 

 BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON MERCHANT MARINE AND FISHERIES 

 SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES 

 U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

 JUNE 8, 1994 



The past 210 years of this country's history have not been kind to wetlands. As the 

 committee is well aware, we have lost more than half of this nation's original tapestry of 

 wetlands, much of it with the enthusiastic participation of the federal government. With the 

 advent of wetland regulation, a modest slow-down in wetlands losses has occurred, but not 

 without great divisiveness. While the Clean Water Act regulates only a few of the activities 

 that are harmful to wetlands, and permits allowing these few activities are issued in 95 

 percent of all cases, the Clean Water Act reauthorization effort struggles on against renewed 

 antipathy. 



It is with great enthusiasm today that I come before this committee to endorse 

 reauthorization of the North American Wetlands Conservation Act. The Act stands as a 

 model of highly effective wetlands conservation and — in its first three years of operation — 

 has done more to bring diverse interests together for the protection of wetlands than any 

 other program, federal or otherwise. 



Our Council membership — from The Nature Conservancy to the National Rifle 

 Association — is testament to the common ground diverse partners can find in the mission to 

 conserve the nation's wetlands, for ALL wetland-dependant species and for future 

 generations. The North American Wetlands Conservation Act has been a catalyst for 

 partnerships, pulling together diverse regional interests to implement concrete protections and 

 rehabilitation of critical wetland systems. While the Act has provided funding for more than 

 50 organizations in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, it has drawn together a total of 325 

 partners behind those projects, all of whom play an active role in funding, supporting and 

 working on Act-funded projects. 



The emphasis this Act puts on partnerships is both symbolically important and 

 ultimately pragmatic. There's simply not enough federal funding to conserve and restore all 

 the critical wetland systems that need protection in this country and on this continent. Pulling 

 in partners brings in additional private funding, in-kind services, additional staffing, and 

 needed technical expertise. Establishing private-lands stewardship projects in which the 

 government or nonprofit groups help landowners protect and repair their own wetlands not 

 only brings good will to the cause of wetlands protection, it leverages significant amounts of 

 private money for these projects and it puts more people on the ground doing wetlands 

 restoration. Seventy-five percent of all wetlands in this country are owned by private 

 landowners. These numbers are similar in Canada and Mexico. We don't have enough 

 money to buy all the wetlands that merit protection. This program uses its limited resources 

 to acquire critical and imperiled wetlands when necessary, and uses the remainder of its 

 resources to stimulate private landowners to initiate improved stewardship of wetlands. 



