Preservation of Wetlands as a Preferred Option for Impact Mitigation

Proceedings of the 1995 Georgia Water Resources Conference, April 11 and 12, 1995, Athens, Georgia.Current Section 404 regulatory policy focuses on wetland restoration and creation as the primary means of compensating for unavoidable wetland impacts. However, most wetland restoration and creation projects are inefficient; restoration efforts are often expensive, confined to small parcels, not coordinated with regional conservation plans, and of questionable functional value. In contrast, preserving existing wetlands is a cost-effective means of maintaining and enhancing a wide variety of aquatic ecosystem functions, and can be more easily directed within the framework of a statewide resource protection plan. Therefore, wetland preservation meets the goal of the Clean Water Act to restore and maintain the integrity of the nation's waters, and the Section 404 permitting program should favor impact mitigation plans that emphasize wetland preservation over restoration or creation.Sponsored and Organized by: U.S. Geological Survey, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, The University of Georgia, Georgia State University, Georgia Institute of TechnologyThis book was published by the Carl Vinson Institute of Government, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602 with partial funding provided by the U.S. Department of Interior, Geological Survey, through the Georgia Water Research Institute as authorized by the Water Resources Research Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-397). The views and statements advanced in this publication are solely those of the authors and do not represent official views or policies of the University of Georgia or the U.S. Geological Survey or the conference sponsors