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    Speech 2

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    This document is the text of a speech given by the Director of the United States Wetlands Protection Agency to the Federation of Small Businesses National Convention on March 13, 2014 about protecting wetlands. The director discusses how wetlands were once seen as nuisances but are now recognized for their environmental importance. He notes that the US has lost about 150 million acres of original wetlands. The director outlines federal legislation and regulations protecting wetlands, including permitting requirements. He believes successes in working with industry and governments have helped stabilize wetland losses in the US.

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    Speech 2

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    This document is the text of a speech given by the Director of the United States Wetlands Protection Agency to the Federation of Small Businesses National Convention on March 13, 2014 about protecting wetlands. The director discusses how wetlands were once seen as nuisances but are now recognized for their environmental importance. He notes that the US has lost about 150 million acres of original wetlands. The director outlines federal legislation and regulations protecting wetlands, including permitting requirements. He believes successes in working with industry and governments have helped stabilize wetland losses in the US.

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    This document is the text of a speech given by the Director of the United States Wetlands Protection Agency to the Federation of Small Businesses National Convention on March 13, 2014 about protecting wetlands. The director discusses how wetlands were once seen as nuisances but are now recognized for their environmental importance. He notes that the US has lost about 150 million acres of original wetlands. The director outlines federal legislation and regulations protecting wetlands, including permitting requirements. He believes successes in working with industry and governments have helped stabilize wetland losses in the US.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    54 views4 pages

    Speech 2

    Uploaded by

    api-281692864
    This document is the text of a speech given by the Director of the United States Wetlands Protection Agency to the Federation of Small Businesses National Convention on March 13, 2014 about protecting wetlands. The director discusses how wetlands were once seen as nuisances but are now recognized for their environmental importance. He notes that the US has lost about 150 million acres of original wetlands. The director outlines federal legislation and regulations protecting wetlands, including permitting requirements. He believes successes in working with industry and governments have helped stabilize wetland losses in the US.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 4

    OUR DIMINISHING SWAMPS: WHO CARES?

    Federation of Small Businesses National Convention


    Las Vegas, Nevada
    March 13 2014
    By Ahmed Barzani, Director
    United States Wetlands Protection Agency

    Thank you, Mr. Beasley, for that nice introduction. On behalf of the 2,500
    federal employees of the United States Wetlands Protection Agency, I am pleased to
    bring you greetings tonight and to spend a few moments talking to you on the topic
    Our Diminishing Swamps: Who Cares?

    TRANSP 1: OUR DIMINISHING SWAMPS: WHO CARES?


    First, Id like to give you some background information on our wetlandsor
    what some of you might consider our swampsand show why we consider them to
    be valuable resources. Then Ill discuss federal legislation and regulations that seek
    to protect these valuable resources and give a few examples of some of our early
    successes. Next, Ill provide an honest assessment of where we are now and the
    problems remaining for us to tackle in the coming years. Finally, Ill be happy to
    answer any questions you may have.

    2
    TRANSP 2: BACKGROUND
    Wetlands are bogs, marshes, swamps, and other areas with a fight proportion
    of water. Bogs are found primarily in the northern climates and contain large
    amounts of partially decayed plant life called peat. Marshes and swamps generally
    occur in warmer climates. Marshes are dominated by grasses, reeds, and other
    nonwoody plants, whereas swamps include many trees and shrubs.

    It wasnt too long ago that wetlands were considered disease-harboring


    nuisances. These swamps were routinely filled in and built on, used as dumping
    grounds for car wrecks and construction debris, or drained and converted for
    agriculture.

    The interior Department estimates that at our nations founding, we had 250
    million acres of wetlands in what is now the continental United States. Only 100
    million acres now survive.

    Why are we so determined to not only protect these 100 million acres but
    also increase them? To begin with, consider the wildlife implications. Many
    shorebirds and waterfowl make their homes in wetlands.

    Brianna Dusterhoft

    3
    These areas also provide food and shelter for such mammals as mink, moose,
    and muskrats. And they provide some of the increasingly rare resting places for
    warblers, tanagers, and other migratory birds that spend winters in South America.

    The wet areas are valuable ecologically in other ways as well. For example,
    they help control floods because they hold back water and provide space for
    rainwater to collect. They also help to purify water by slowing it down before it
    reaches our rivers and seas, giving time for the solids to sink and subjecting any
    organic pollutants to microbes in the mud.

    TRANSP 3: FEDERAL EFFORTS


    Because of the increasing recognition of the environmental importance of
    wetlands for wildlife and humankind, the Federal Clean Air Act prohibits any effort to
    fill in or build on a wetland or otherwise conduct business that would alter the
    landscape of a wetland without first obtaining a permit from the U.S. Corps of
    Engineers.

    Our most recent legislation classifies a wetland as any area that has all three
    of these distinctive natural features:

    Brianna Dusterhoft

    Its soil is composed of mulch, peat, or other soils formed from constant

    soaking.
    The surface is flooded for more than 14 consecutive days during the growing

    season.
    More than half of all plants growing in the area are among the 7,000 species
    common to wetlands (such as red maples, ferns, and willows).

    As stated, anyone wishing to develop land that meets these three criteria must
    first secure permission from the U.S. Corps of Engineers. Failure to do so may
    result in heavy fines, which then are used to purchase additional wetlands to add
    to our wetland inventory.

    TRANSP 4: TURNING THE TIDE


    Working with industry, private owners, and state and local governments, we
    have been able to turn the tide, so to speak, so that we are no longer losing
    wetlands to development or agriculture. Specifically, the following three success
    stories each involve a different management and conservation strategy.

    Brianna Dusterhoft

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