October 30.

Definitions and Delineations

1) Scientific                                 

2) Legal: U.S. Corps Engineers
                U.S.F.S Service
                EPA

Problems that arise between the two:

1) variability in flooding-How long is standing water there?
2) legal problems when people want to change or modify the area.
    (no problem doing research there)
3) hydrophytes- Which ones are? Which ones are not?
4) hydric and or hydrophytes and/or flooding- What happens when you only have two out of the three characteristics?
5) not all wetlands are the same. Is it possible to have only one set of criteria?

Up until the 1960's, government actually encouraged destruction. Do something useful with it!

1972: Clean Water Act: water quality maintaince

1972: Coastal zone management act that had some legal responsibilities with the Dept. Of Commerce and wetlands:           Congress or courts involved in designating responsibilities among government agencies.

1975: National Resource Defense Council: in a court case with Calloway. Decided wetlands were included in naviagateable           waters

1985: U.S. vs. Riverside Bayview Homes: jurisdictional wetlands are areas that are legally defined as protected area by           government agencies. Corps of Engineers responsibilities as far as protecting areas- responsibility for groundwater.

1985: Swamp Buster Act: Part of the Food Safety Bill: any farms who developed land in a jurisdictional wetland could not           participate in any government sponsorships.

1987: meeting of National Wetland Policy Forum- advisory board put together by Regan: make policies and regulations           regarding wetlands. Conservative group(mostly farmers and land developers) but can out with radical policy of No Net           Loss after seeing scientific information about wetlands.

1988: Bush added to this to his platform during his election campaign: did have executive directive in telling agencies that this           is the way it should be.

Clinton did the same- enhance and protect them. Agencies became more proactive. The EPA, USFWS, and the Corps of Engineers each created their own definition and put out handbooks on delineations (setting boundaries for wetlands). Big Problem: the definitions did not match. Example: how often would lands have to be flooded to be considered a wetland? One said 7 days straight. Another said 12.5% of the year or 5% of the growing season. One said 15 days out of the year. Example: how deep is the saturated zone? One said 30 cm, another 15 to 36 cm, and another said at the surface.

1989: Got together to do one technical manual: they agreed upon all things. Took this to Congress and they laughed in their           faces. Congress said no one could use this. But the manual was already distributed so people was started using it like           an informal manual.

1991: Tried to redo the manual but it got shot down again(mostly through special groups). Still had the federal policy of no           net loss.

Tricky areas:

Private Property: so much of the wetlands are part of this: brings up the takings issue. Government tells you what you can and can't do on your own property. Determining the value of the property= if the value of the property is lowered, the owners should be compensated(5th Amendment)

Lucas vs. S. Carolina: a tough case, the beach on the owners property was ripped out by a storm. Went to get a new building permit but the state said it was a protected coastal area and could not build homes there. The owner said fine but pay me for it. State said no. Took it to a local court, they said it was a taking so should pay him for it. But the state and the Supreme Court decided he was a nuisance and could not have the money. Point is that governement should compensate you for the takings. Lots of problems with this: some tools to help make it easier for us:
1) Geo Information Systems: wetland inventories put out to help people know where these areas are
2) Global Positioning Systems: hand held computers which tell you exactly where you are latitudinally and longitudinally.     Good for field work- delineate work with much greater accuracy.

Both help others with knowledge and better accuracy.
3) Hydrophyte list: basically everyone uses the same list by Reed in 1988: agreeement of what types of plants are in wetlands.     Reed broke it up into Obligative Wetland, Facultative Wetland, Facultative Upland Plants, and Obligate Upland Plants.     Look at % of plants to see if you have a wetland, no more trying to define water depth and water saturation questions to     make determination.

Another Problem:
Tucson in EPA region 9 (out of 10): Office in San Fran. Problems arise between Tucson ideas and San Fran ideas
Army Corps has 36 regions: Tucson office in Los Angeles
U.S.F.W.S. has 7 regions: Tucson office in Albequerque
U.S.D.A. has an office in every county in the country.