Wetland Protection and Mitigation Under the Federal-Aid Highway Program

Over the last decade a national policy of wetland protection and enhancement evolved from the objective of no-net-loss in acreage to one of net gain. Beginning in 1993, Federal agencies began to manage their individual programs to reverse the national trend of wetland loss and take steps to have programs move toward a new goal of net gain.

In 1994, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) issued an agency Environmental Policy Statement. Among the commitments made by the FHWA in the statement was a call for the protection and enhancement of all natural resources, including wetlands. In subsequent strategic plans and performance agreements, the FHWA established an agency policy of no-net-loss of wetlands impacted on a program-wide basis for Federal-aid highway projects. By 1996, the FHWA revised its no-net-loss policy upward to a net gain goal. The agency's 1996 performance plan and all subsequent plans indicated this change by establishing a performance measure for an average wetland acreage replacement of 1.5 acres of compensation for every acre impacted under the Federal-aid highway program. The FHWA's 2001 Strategic Plan and Performance Agreement states that the agency will: "Minimize the adverse impacts of Federal aid highway projects on wetlands, and on a program-wide basis, replace 1.5 acres of wetlands for every 1 acre affected where impacts are unavoidable."

The Federal Clean Water Action Plan (CWAP) issued in 1998 contains a Key Action Item #44 in which the FHWA makes a commitment to achieve a net increase in wetland acreage resulting from Federal-aid highway projects by 50% in ten years and financial support for mitigation projects to remediate adverse impacts to wetlands from past projects. The agency meets this goal, and that of its own performance plans, by working with the State Departments of Transportation to encourage the use of the flexibility under TEA-21 to finance wetland and natural habitat mitigation and restoration projects. Specific provisions of TEA-21 (project eligibility provisions of the National Highway System and Surface Transportation Program) provide funds for wetland and natural habitat mitigation, including work to restore and enhance these habitats.

As a measure of performance under the FHWA's net gain policy and the commitment in the CWAP, the agency monitors annual wetland loss and gain under the Federal-aid highway program nationwide. Monitoring began in Fiscal Year 1996. Our data collected over the last 8 years indicate that nationwide, the Federal-aid highway program has achieved a 160% gain in wetland acreage (2.6:1 gain/loss ratio). In terms of acres, the Federal-aid highway program produced a total net gain of 22,367 acres of wetlands nationwide 1996 through 2003.