Floridas Wetlands Regulations Affecting Biodiversity

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Floridas WetlandsRegulations Affecting
Biodiversity

• Robbie Roach
• LAA Policy
• Fall 2005

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Content

• Introduce Wetlands
• Introduce Biodiversity
• Wetland Biodiversity
• Floridas wetland regulations
• Their implications for biodiversity
• Examples

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Wetlands Defined

• Wetlands have 1 or more of 3 characteristics
• - the land supports predominantly hydrophytes
  (aquatic plants)
• - the land is composed predominantly of
  undrained hydric soil
• - the land is saturated with water or covered
  by shallow water at some time during the growing
  season each year

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Characteristics of Wetlands

• Wetlands include
• marshes
• swamps
• bogs

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Wetland Formation

• Common ways wetlands form
• rain and runoff that regularly saturates a
  low-lying area
• groundwater very close to the earth that
  bubbles up through porous soil
• floodwaters spreading out from large,
  periodically flooding waterbodies such as rivers
  and lakes
• coastal waters cyclically immersing the land,
  such as along Lake Erie

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Biodiversity Definition

• Biodiversity refers to the variety of life forms
  the different plants, animals, and
  microorganisms, the genes they contain and the
  ecosystems they form.
• 3 different levels
• genetic diversity
• species diversity
• ecosystem diversity

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Wetlands Biodiversity

• Estimated that over half of the wetlands in the
  continental U.S. have been lost since the 18th
  century
• With destruction of wetlands has come destruction
  of biodiversity, both in wetland areas themselves
  and downstream

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Wetlands Biodiversity Cont

• Wetlands in a sense are a biodiversity laboratory
• The diversity of conditions in wetlands set the
  environmental parameters that allow for and even
  encourage the evolution of novel survival
  strategies

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Wetland Biodiversity Cont

• Wetlands are important to natural cycles
  involving water, nitrogen, and sulfur
• Their plants and rich soil may provide a buffer
  against global climate change, by storing carbon
  instead of releasing it into the atmosphere as
  carbon dioxide

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Wetland Regulations

• Federal Laws
• - Section 404 of the Clean Water Act 1987
  regulates the discharge of dredged or fill
  material into waters of the United States.
• - The goal of this section is to restore and
  maintain the chemical, physical, and biological
  integrity of the nations waters

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Federal Law Cont

• This act established a no net loss policy for
  managing wetlands
• This means that filled-in wetland areas should be
  offset with restored wetland acreage
• Before conducting any activity that will result
  in discharge of dredged or fill material, a
  Section 404 Permit usually must be obtained from
  the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers prior to
  beginning the activity.

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State Authority

• (DEP) Department of Environmental Protection
• (WMD) Water Management District
• (DOF) Department of Forestry
• (BMP) Best Management Practices

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State Law

• 1984 Warren S. Henderson Wetland Protection Act
• Exemptions where allowed for agricultural and
  silvicultural activities

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Exempt Activities

• 3 conditions apply
• 1. It must be a part of an established, ongoing
  silvicultural operation.
• 2. It must be considered normal silviculture,
  or customary to the practice of forestry.
• 3. It must not significantly change wetland use
  or impair flow and circulation of water on,
  around, or across a wetland

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Floridas Wetlands

• Florida boasts more wetlands than any other
  state, except Alaska
• Currently there are 10.5 million acres
• Approximately 1/3 of the entire state
• However, since the Clean Water Act policy took
  effect in 1990, at least 84,000 acres of
  Floridas wetlands have been destroyed

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Florida Wetland Stats

• The Corps of Engineers approves more permits to
  destroy wetlands in Florida than any other state,
  and allows a higher percentage of destruction in
  Florida than nationally
• Between 1999 and 2003 it approved more than
  12,000 wetland permits and rejected only 1

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Wetland Destruction Examples

• Since 1990 the 84,000 acres of destroyed wetlands
  were greatest in areas where the population grew
  by more than 3-million South Florida, Southwest
  Florida, Orlando, and Jacksonville
• 3 years ago, the corps approved requests by
  limestone mining companies to destroy 5,400 acres
  of wetlands at the edge of the Everglades. Now
  there are lifeless lakes 90 feet deep that are
  not nearly as valuable as the wetlands before
  they dug

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Wal-Mart No Net Loss

• Oldsmar, Florida 1999 Wal-Mart proposed a
  supercenter on 28 acres, which included 5 wetland
  acres they said needed to go
• The corps approved it
• Wal-mart created 3 wetlands around the parking
  lot to abide by the no net loss

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Wal-Mart No Net Loss Cont

• They transplanted the vegetation from the natural
  wetlands they destroyed
• They also promised to preserve 26 acres of
  wetlands north of the store
• Now many of the transplanted trees are dead and
  rainstorms send polluted water from the parking
  lot flowing into the largest man-made wetland,
  which doubles as a retention pond

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Wal-Mart No Net Loss Cont

• Even if the water was clean the trees would be in
  trouble because Cypress can tolerate a few inches
  of water, but the Wal-Mart wetlands hold 3 feet
  or more
• And the 26 acres of preserved wetland, Wal-Mart
  tried to sell it for development without telling
  the corps

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Another ExampleConsequences

• In 1990s the population of Lee and Collier
  counties increased drastically
• The corps erased 4,000 acres of wetlands in the
  western Everglades
• The new roads and upscale subdivision around
  Bonita Springs choked off wetland sloughs that
  carried away excess water
• And in 1995 floods forced more than 1,000 people
  to evacuate

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References

• CD-Rom. 18th Annual Environmental Permitting
  (2004) Omnipress
• Exploring the Environment (April 28, 2005).
  Florida Everglades.
• www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/everglades/FEwetlands.htm
  l.
• Florida Forestry Information. Planning and
  Assistance Regulations Wetlands www.sfrc.ufl.
  edu/Extension/ffws/wetl.htm.
• Florida State Wetlands Information Tool
  (SWIFT). www.cicacenter.org/swift2.cfm?stFL.
• Lewis, G. (2004). A Regional Wetland Mitigation
  Framework for the Protection of Biodiversity
  The Northeast Region as a Case Study. Department
  of LA Thesis.
• Moore, S.E. (2005). Forested Wetlands
  Regulations Affecting Management.
• http//edis.ifas.ufl.edu/FR006.
• Pittman, C. Waite, M. (May 22, 2005). They
  wont say no St. Petersburg Times,
  www.sptimes.com/2005/05/22/State/They_won_t_say_no
  .shtml.
• Templeton, M. (2004). Floridas Wetlands
  Factors That Influence Them and
• Guidelines For Protecting Them. Department of
  LA Thesis.
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (April 7,
  2005). Wetlands Definitions,
  www.epa.gov/owow/wetlands/what/definitions.html.