Current Status of Wetlands in the United States

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reports to Congress on the status and trends of losses of the Nation's Wetlands every 10 years. The latest report, Status and Trends of Wetlands in the Conterminous United States, 1986 to 1997, indicates that by 1997, wetlands losses had declined from a rate of about 290,000 acres per year in the 1970's and early 80's to approximately 58,000 acres per year, an 80% reduction.

Freshwater forested wetlands experienced the greatest losses - 1.2 million acres - of all wetland types during the study period, with fewer than 50 million acres remaining in the conterminous 48 states. Freshwater emergent wetlands declined by 1 million acres as well, a loss of 4.6 percent during the study period.

Overall, the study attributes wetlands loss during this study period to urban development (30 percent), agriculture (26 percent), silviculture (23 percent), and rural development (21 percent).

Data on annual wetlands losses due to the Federal Aid Highway Program were not compiled prior to 1996. However, data collected since then indicate that from 1996 to 2000, between 1100 and 2400 acres were converted or lost per year due to federally funded highway construction (less than 5 percent of the national total). These losses were compensated at an average ratio of 2.7 to one, which means the wetlands compensation ratio in the Federal aid highway program is almost three times the rate of loss for the past five years. Keep up the good work.

Status and Trends of Wetlands in the Conterminous United States, 1986 to 1997, is online at http://wetlands.fws.gov/bha/SandT/SandTReport.html. (Not currently available due to court order.)