water diversion projects to nourish the wetlands these levees have cutoff. There are a few Federal water diversion and marsh creation projects in place in Louisiana, and they have proven extraordinarily successful in creating wetlands. But to expand these projects to the extent needed simply to compensate for the wetlands losses directly attributable to Federal activities will cost a considerable amount of moneymore money than the Administration and the Congress are probably prepared to give to this effort. And even with full funding of these projects, Louisiana will still experience wetland losses.

În recognition of this fact, EPA Administrator William Reilly stated in recent Senate testimony that it would be extremely difficult to apply a "no net wetlands loss" policy to Louisiana. Yet, he is offering no meaningful alternative. The only alternative that has a chance of working is embodied in the State Federal manage ment regime envisioned by S. 630 and which forms the basis of legislation I will soon introduce that further clarifies the authority and responsibility of the State of Louisiana in developing and implementing a coastal wetlands management plan.

Mr. Chairman, in the weeks ahead, I will offer a bill that can bring some hope to the people whose very existence and whose heritage is inextricably linked to the wetlands of Louisiana. I ask that you consider legislative hearings on that bill this year. To be sure, there are wetlands in the United States that will survive and flourish if only man's activities in them is restricted. However, in the vast coastal wetlands of Louisiana, we need a completely different policy structure, one that recognizes that, like a critically wounded patient, these wetlands need intensive care that cannot and, apparently, will not be given under existing law.

Mr. STUDDS. Let the Chair observe there is an unusual number of people. If anyone who is without a seat would like to come and sit around this first level here, you are more than welcome to do so before we get started, especially those of you who have to write. We make the usual pledge that no one will accuse you of working here, so you are perfectly free to come in.

[Laughter.]

Mr. STUDDS. The first panel has five people in it. Is that correct? As I understand it, you have sworn an oath to the staff that your oral presentation will take no more than 5 minutes. Your written presentations will appear in full in the record, and we will gounless you have a problem with it-in the order in which you appear on the witness list, beginning with Mr. David Davis, Director of the Office of Wetlands Protection from the EPA.

Mr. Davis?

STATEMENTS OF A PANEL, CONSISTING OF MR. DAVID G. DAVIS, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF WETLANDS PROTECTION, U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY; DR. RALPH MORGENWECK, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR FOR FISH AND WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT, U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR; MR. JOHN CAMPBELL, DEPUTY UNDER SECRETARY FOR INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS AND COMMODITY PROGRAMS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE; DR. WILLIAM H. HOOKE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF THE CHIEF SCIENTIST, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION; AND MR. JOHN S. DOYLE, JR., PRINCIPAL DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE ARMY [CIVIL WORKS], DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY

Mr. DAVIS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon.

As you noted, Mr. Chairman, the administration is committed to improving the protection and management of this Nation's wetlands. President Bush, in his 1990 budget statement, called for a goal of "no net loss" of wetlands. Achieving this goal will be no

small and easy task, and will require cooperation and action from each level of government, along with the private sector.

Although considerable progress has been made in the effectiveness of wetlands protection, both at the Federal and State levels, new pressures are arising which challenge each step forward. Continued population growth and development pressures and cropland values bring increased pressures to convert wetlands for agricultural purposes.

Much of the recent increase in awareness and concern for wetlands issues can be attributed to the work of the National Wetlands Policy Forum. The forum report points out the complexity of wetlands issues as well as the solutions, and concluded that all sectors of society must play an active role in order to bring the problems under control.

On the Federal level, the President has asked the Domestic Policy Council to establish an interagency task force on wetlands to recommend ways to revise and strengthen the current presidential Executive order on wetlands, and to do certain other things that are not yet determined. EPA will be an active participant in this task force.

The issues include how to interpret and achieve the "no net loss" goal. Such a goal does not imply that every wetland will be untouchable in all cases. We recognize that there are going to be circumstances where some wetland loss will have to continue to be sustained, but the point is we are trying to find ways to minimize that and to compensate for it.

Another difficult issue for the interagency task force is how to monitor and assess progress toward achieving the goal. Restoration of previous wetlands will be a key factor in addressing this problem.

One particularly ripe area to encourage restoration efforts, as many of you would note, is coastal Louisiana where the loss rates of 40 to 60 square miles a year are quite unacceptable. Responding to these losses as part of its overall efforts to protect coastal waters, EPA has in fact been working in that area, contributing funding to the State for projects to divert sediments, to build and vegetate terraces to restore coastal wetlands, and we have been working to possibly establish a national estuary program in Barataria Bay.

Agricultural areas also are particularly appropriate for wetlands restoration. We have been working with the Department of Agriculture to identify stronger linkages between water quality goals and programs like the Conservation Reserve. We are also exploring potential changes to the 1990 Farm Bill with the USDA, to enhance opportunities to protect and restore wetlands.

Within the regulatory program, EPA approaches wetlands restoration and creation to replace natural wetlands with caution. The problem with relying too heavily on the restoration or creation of wetlands to offset losses of existing natural wetlands is the very high degree of risk still associated with such attempts, so it is an area that we believe should be approached very carefully and very slowly.

In January, former Administrator Lee Thomas issued a wetlands action plan for the agency, describing short-term actions we can

take to help implement certain recommendations of the National Wetlands Policy Forum. They fall in a series of categories which are laid out in my full testimony.

A couple of things I would like to highlight before I close: We have been working actively with the Army Corps of Engineers to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the 404 program. That culminated in the development of two memoranda of agreement in January, one on jurisdiction and one on enforcement; and with the Corps, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Soil Conservation Service, also in January we developed a joint delineation manual. We have also been expanding our efforts in the area of advance identification of wetlands, which we believe is an important way to get our arms around wetlands in a more geographic, watershed, or natural ecoregion context.

We are also trying to integrate wetlands into all of our programs. EPA, like many agencies, has multiple programs, not all of which have wetlands as their primary objective. We are trying to work to increase the level of sensitivity and understanding of the wetland problem in all of our programs, and take steps to adjust them accordingly, so that they will be helpful and certainly not hindering.

We are also working with other State, Federal, and local agencies to foster the use of comprehensive planning-in particular things like multiobjective river corridor management-as a way of pulling together many different societal and environmental objectives. We feel that through this kind of a process we can make a lot of headway in terms of assuring that, in these areas of high environmental value and high environmental impact, we stop working at cross purposes and we do everything possible to bring our programs, all of our programs at all levels, into line. We have an active project of that sort trying to integrate work along the Delaware River corridor with the Delaware estuary. We think that is a very promising approach.

And, finally, we are working to integrate wetlands more effectively into the water quality management program. Historically, water quality programs have looked primarily at chemical water quality in the water column. They haven't paid much attention to the vegetated wetlands, for a variety of obvious reasons.

We are trying to rectify that. We have several State pilots going on to look at the use of wetland-specific water quality criteria. We have research programs going on to try to develop better criteria for those uses, and we are also developing a handbook for States on how to apply water quality certification to wetland protection.

So we have many different kinds of things going on. My full testimony contains many more, and in the interest of time I will conclude my remarks. Thank you for the opportunity.

[The statement of Mr. Davis can be found at end of hearing.] Mr. STUDDS. Thank you, Mr. Davis.

Next, Mr. Ralph Morgenweck, Assistant Director for Fish and Wildlife Enhancement of the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Mr. Morgenweck?

STATEMENT OF DR. MORGENWECK

Mr. MORGENWECK. Mr. Chairman, thank you for the opportunity to discuss the wetland conservation activities of the Fish and Wildlife Service and ways we can work together to end the destruction of our Nation's wetland resources.

Wetlands are among the most biologically diverse and productive ecosystems. The effects of wetland losses in the U.S. that have concerned natural resource professionals for decades have now helped to generate concerns of the general public, as well. You are certainly aware of the statistics on wetland loss: Well over half of the 215 million acres of wetlands which existed in the U.S. at the time of European settlement have been lost, and wetland losses continue at a level as high as 450,000 acres per year.

The Service fully supports the goal of "no net loss" of wetlands as enunciated by President Bush. Many of the concepts related to this goal have been at the forefront of the Service's wetlands activities.

My formal statement describes many of the activities with which the Service is involved in protecting, managing, restoring, and enhancing wetlands. Our activities range from mapping and trend studies, to activities aimed at reducing wetland loss, to restoring and enhancing wetlands.

Our National Wetland Inventory is a comprehensive, ongoing survey of our wetland resources nationally. The Lower 48 States will be completely mapped by 1998, and Alaska will be completed soon thereafter.

Efforts in conjunction with the Department's Office of Program Analysis have resulted in a major review of wetland losses attributable to Government programs, and recommendations to make these programs more compatible with wetland protection.

Efforts to reduce wetland losses are also manifested in our interagency activities, where we review about 10,000 individual public notices each year related to the Clean Water Act's Section 404 permit program and provide recommendations to the Corps to mitigate wetland-related impacts. We also provide technical assistance to the Corps and to the Bureau of Reclamation on Federal water projects, and we have been actively working with the Department of Agriculture and farmers to implement the swampbuster provisions of the 1985 Farm Bill.

As part of our wetland restoration efforts, nearly 16,000 acres of wetlands were restored in 1988, and a restoration goal of 20,000 acres has been set for 1989. This is in addition to our many years of restoration efforts on our National Wildlife Refuges.

Activities undertaken to implement the North American Waterfowl Management Plan, an agreement signed by Canada and the U.S., have targeted more than 5 million acres of key waterfowl habitat for protection in the U.S. and Canada.

I would be remiss if I did not mention other wetland activities of the Service. These include studies of contaminants in wetlands, habitat-related activities under the Endangered Species Program, State acquisition of wetlands under our Federal aid program, ongoing land acquisition with revenues from the migratory bird conservation fund, and various studies in our Research Division.

A few observations on the "no net loss" goal are in order. The Service has had extensive experience in one aspect of this objective—mitigation of unavoidable wetland losses. We believe that the "no net loss" goal embodies the fundamental concepts of avoiding wetland destruction whenever possible, minimizing damage when wetland disturbance is necessary, and replacing functions and values that are lost. These concepts have been part of the Service's Mitigation Policy since 1981.

Obviously, to achieve a "no net loss" goal we must also consider functions and values of wetlands which extend beyond their fish and wildlife value. In many cases the hydrological functions of wetlands in terms of floodwater storage, groundwater recharge, and maintenance of soil moisture, may be the more valuable wetland functions to society.

Another concern regarding no net loss deals with whether the account is measured in wetland acreage or function. Clearly it is the functional aspect that imparts value to wetland habitats. On the other hand, our imperfect understanding of wetland functions often makes dealing in acreage an easier if less precise approach. Finally, we must consider the applicability of this goal to all circumstances. There may be situations where flexibility is advisable because replacement opportunities are limited geographically, biologically, or technically.

In closing, Mr. Chairman, our national ledger of annual wetland losses and gains indicates that our annual losses or outlays are running at 300,000 to 450,000 acres, while our gains or income range from 20,000 to 25,000 acres. This means that we have a deficit of as much as 425,000 acres annually.

Perhaps the scale of this problem can be expressed by comparing wetland loss with the problem of tropical deforestation. Ironically, the furor over tropical deforestation comes at a time when the world has lost less than 20 percent of that resource internationally, while the U.S. has already lost 54 percent of its wetlands.

Clearly we all have a lot of work to do to achieve the President's goal of "no net loss." Solutions to wetland conservation issues depend to a large extent on public stewardship, given that an estimated 74 percent of the remaining wetlands in the continental U.S. are privately owned. Based on our experience in wetland trends, mitigation, and restoration, the Service is confident that attainment of "no net less" of wetlands is a desirable goal, and we are eager to pursue it.

Thank you.

[The statement of Dr. Morgenweck can be found at end of hearing.]

Mr. STUDDS. Thank you very much, sir.

The uncivilized buzzing you heard behind you means we have a vote on the floor. It is the conference report on the budget resolution. That shouldn't take us more than 5 minutes, which is 4 and a half more than the resolution is worth. We will stand adjourned for whatever amount of time it takes for at least two Members of the Committee to get over there and back again, about 6 and a half minutes in practice, maybe 7. We apologize for the interruption. We will be back as fast as we can.

[Recess.]