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Subject: Technical aspects of wetlands - history.html
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USGS Water Resources Information
National Water Summary on Wetland Resources
United States Geological Survey Water Supply Paper 2425
_________________________________________________________________
Technical Aspects of Wetlands
History of Wetlands in the Conterminous
United States
By
Thomas E. Dahl, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Gregory J. Allord, U.S. Geological Survey
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At the time of European settlement in the early 1600's, the area that
was to become the conterminous United States had approximately 221
million acres of wetlands. About 103 million acres remained as of the
mid-1980's (Dahl and Johnson, 1991). Six States lost 85 percent or
more of their original wetland acreage--twenty-two lost 50 percent or
more (Dahl, 1990) (fig. 2). Even today, all of the effects of these
losses might not be fully realized.
Figure 2.
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Figure 2. States with notable wetland loss, 1780's to mid-1980's.
Source: Modified from Dahl, 1990.)
Historical events, technological innovations, and values of society
sometimes had destructive effects on wetlands. By examining the
historical backdrop of why things happened, when they happened, and
the consequences of what happened, society can better appreciate the
importance of wetlands in water-resource issues. Society's views about
wetlands have changed considerably--especially in the last half
century. Interest in the preservation of wetlands has increased as the
value of wetlands to society has become more fully understood. From a
cultural standpoint, it is interesting to understand how changes in
opinions and values came about, and what effects these changes had on
wetland resources. From an ecological perspective, it is important to
understand how the loss of wetlands affects fish, wildlife, and the
environment as a whole.
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Early 1600's to 1800--Colonial Settlement
Wetland drainage began with permanent settlement of Colonial America.
Throughout the 1600's and 1700's, colonization was encouraged by
European monarchs to establish footholds in North America. The effects
of this colonization on the landscape became obvious in the early to
mid-1700's.
Much of our knowledge of early wetlands comes from maps and other
documents that survived over time. The origins of settlers influenced
both where people settled and how they mapped and used natural
resources. Few records exist because the original English, French, and
Spanish settlements were established before the land was surveyed.
Settlements in the North tended to be clustered, whereas communities
in the South were more widely scattered because of the predominance of
agriculture. Many different land surveying systems resulted in an
incomplete patchwork of ownership that ultimately caused many legal
problems due to boundary errors and overlapping claims (Garrett,
1988). It was not until 1785 that the Land Ordinance Act established
the United States Public Land Survey, which required surveying and
partitioning of land prior to settlement. Although not established to
provide information on natural resources, surveys do provide some
information about the distribution and location of wetlands.
During the 1700's, wetlands were regarded as swampy lands that bred
diseases, restricted overland travel, impeded the production of food
and fiber, and generally were not useful for frontier survival.
Settlers, commercial interests, and governments agreed that wetlands
presented obstacles to development, and that wetlands should be
eliminated and the land reclaimed for other purposes. Most pioneers
viewed natural resources from wetlands as things to be used without
limit (Tebeau, 1980). The most productive tracts of land in fertile
river valleys in parts of Virginia had been claimed and occupied
before 1700. The resulting shortage of choice land stimulated
colonists to move south to the rich bottom lands along the Chowan
River and Albemarle Sound of North Carolina on the flat Atlantic
coastal plain. Initially, settlements consisted primarily of shelters
and subsistence farms on small tracts of land. To extend the
productive value of available land, wetlands on these small tracts
were drained by small hand-dug ditches. During the mid- to late
1700's, as the population grew, land clearing and farming for profit
began to affect larger tracts of land; many coastal plain wetlands
were converted to farmland (fig. 3). Once drained, these areas
provided productive agricultural lands for growing cash crops.
_________________________________________________________________
Interest in the preservation of wetlands has increased as the value of
wetland has become more fully undertood.
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
Technical advances facilitated wetland conversion.
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Figure 3.
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Figure 3. Extent of wetlands in Washington County, N.C., circa 1780
(left) and 1990 (right).Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Status
and Trends, unpub. data, 1994.)
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Widespread wetland drainage was most prevalent in the southern
colonies. In 1754, South Carolina authorized the drainage of Cacaw
Swamp for agricultural use (Beauchamp, 1987). Similarly, areas of the
Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia and North Carolina were surveyed in
1763 so that land could be reclaimed for water transportation routes.
Farming on large plantations was common practice in the South and
necessitated some drainage or manipulation of wetlands.
By the 1780's, immigrants had settled along the fertile river valleys
of the Northeast and as far south as present-day Georgia. Wetlands in
these river valleys suffered losses with this settlement (fig. 4).
Small towns and farms were established in the valleys along the rivers
of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and Pennsylvania. Settlement
extended to the valleys beyond the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia
and followed the major rivers inland through the Carolinas by 1800.
Sorry, this photo is not yet available
Oil-powered dredge digging a 30-foot-wide ditch to drain welands near
Carroll, Iowa. Photograph courtesy of National Archives,
8-D-2214-2570.)
Figure 4.
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Figure 4. States with notable wetland loss, early 1600's to 1800.
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1800 to 1860--Westward Expansion
The period between 1800 and 1860 was a time of growth in the United
States. During these decades, numerous land acquisitions--the
Louisiana Purchase (1803); Florida and eastern Louisiana ceded by
Spain (1819); annexation of Texas (1845); the Oregon Compromise
(1846); and lands ceded from Mexico (1848)--greatly expanded the land
area of the United States (Garrett, 1988) (fig. 5). With this land
expansion, the population grew from 7.2 million in 1810 to 12.8
million in 1830 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1832). Land speculation
increased with this rapid growth and marked a period when land and
resources seemed to be available for the taking. It was a time of
rapid inland movement of settlers westward into the wetland-rich areas
of the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys (fig. 2). Large-scale
conversion of wetlands to farmlands started to have a real effect on
the distribution and abundance of wetlands in the United States. Areas
where notable wetland loss occurred between 1800 and 1860 are shown in
figure 6.
Figure 5
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Figure 5. Major United States land acquisitions between 1800 and 1860.
Sources: U.S. Geological Survey, 1970.)
Figure 6
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Figure 6. States with notable wetland loss, 1800 to 1860.
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Technical advances throughout the 1800's greatly facilitated wetland
conversions. The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 provided settlers
with an alternative mode and route of travel from New York to the
Great Lakes States, increasing migration of farmers to the Midwest.
The canal also provided low-cost transportation of timber and
agricultural products from the Nation's interior to eastern markets
and seaports (McNall, 1952). Another innovation, the steam-powered
dredge, allowed the channelizing or clearing of small waterways at the
expense of adjacent wetlands. Between 1810 and 1840, new agricultural
implements--plows, rakes, and cultivators--enabled settlers to break
ground previously not considered for farming (McManis, 1964).
Mechanical reapers introduced in the 1830's stimulated competition in,
and furthered refinements of, farm equipment marketed in the Midwest
(Ross, 1956). These innovations ultimately took a toll on wetlands as
more land was drained, cleared, and plowed for farming.
Wetland drainage continued. In the Midwest, the drainage of the Lake
Erie marshes of Michigan and Ohio probably started about 1836. Cotton
and tobacco farming continued to flourish in the Southern States and
precipitated the additional drainage of thousands of acres of wetlands
for conversion to cropland. Wetlands also were being modified in other
ways. The Horicon Marsh in Wisconsin was dammed and flooded in 1846
for a transportation route and to provide commercial fishing. Toward
the middle of the century, lumbering was an important industry in the
Midwest, supplying wood for construction and fuel for stoves and
fireplaces. Much of the Nation's timber came from the swamp forests of
Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, which typically contained a mix of birch,
ash, elm, oak, cottonwood, poplar, maple, basswood, and hickory.
In 1849, Congress passed the first of the Swamp Land Acts, which
granted all swamp and overflow lands in Louisiana to the State for
reclamation. In 1850, the Act was made applicable to 12 other States,
and in 1860, it was extended to include lands in two additional States
(Shaw and Fredine, 1956) (table 1). Although most States did not begin
immediate large-scale reclamation projects, this legislation clearly
set the tone that the Federal Government promoted wetland drainage and
reclamation for settlement and development. This tone pervaded policy
and land-use trends for the next century. Table 1. Acreage granted to
the States under the authority of the Swamp Land Acts of 1849, 1850,
and 1860
table 1
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1860 to 1900--Agriculture Moves West
The American Civil War (1861-65) affected wetlands because traversing
swamps and marshes with heavy equipment presented major logistical
problems for both armies. The design, engineering, and construction of
transportation and communication networks were stimulated. Attention
became focused on the development of routes around, through, or over
water bodies and wetlands, and on production of accurate maps. These
maps provided an early glimpse of some of the Nation's wetlands.
Sorry, this photo is not yet available
Figure 7. Confederate States of America map of Southeastern United
States with wetlands depicted for strategic rather than natural
resources value. (Source: National Archives, Record Group 94, Civil
War Atlas, Plate CXLIV.) States with notable wetland loss, 1800 to
1860. After the war, the Nation's attention focused on westward
expansion and settlement. Railroads were important in the initial
development of transportation routes. The railroads not only opened
new lands, including wetlands, to development, but the railroad
industry also was a direct consumer of wetland forest products. In the
1860's, more than 30,000 miles of railroad track existed in the United
States (Stover, 1961). The railroads of Ohio consumed 1 million cords
of wood annually just for fuel (Gordon, 1969). The additional quantity
of wood used for ties is not known. From 1859 to 1885, intense timber
cutting and land clearing eliminated many of Ohio's wetlands,
including the Black Swamp (fig. 8).
Figure 8
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Figure 8. Location, estimated original acreage, and drainage date of
Ohio's historic wetlands.
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The Black Swamp was in the northwestern corner of Ohio and was a
barrier to travel and settlement. This forested wetland was estimated
to have been 120 miles long and 40 miles wide, covering an area nearly
equal in size to Connecticut (Gordon, 1969; Ohio Department of Natural
Resources, 1988). The swamp, which was an elm-ash forested wetland
typical of the region, contained a variety of commercially valuable
trees (Eyre, 1980). Nothing was left of the Black Swamp by the end of
the nineteenth century.
During the mid- to late 1880's, agriculture expanded rapidly westward
along the major river systems. Several regions of abundant wetlands
lay directly in the path of this expansion (Wooten and Jones, 1955),
including:
* The prairie pothole wetlands of western Minnesota, northern Iowa,
and North and South Dakota
* The bottom lands of Missouri and Arkansas in the lower Mississippi
River alluvial plain
* The delta wetlands of Mississippi and Louisiana
* The gulf plains of Texas
By the 1860's, settlers started to farm and drain the prairie pothole
region. At first, only a modest number of potholes were drained. By
the late 1800's, however, the numbers had increased significantly.
As new kinds of machinery increased the ability to till more land, the
conversion of wetlands to farmlands increased rapidly. Huge wheat
farms, or "Bonanza Farms," were operating in the Dakota Territory
(present-day North and South Dakota) by 1875. New mechanical seeders,
harrowers, binders, and threshers, designed specifically for wheat
production, were used to cultivate large tracts of land for these
farms (Knue, 1988). Many wetlands were lost as a result of these
operations.
Improvements in drainage technology greatly affected wetland losses in
the East and the Midwest. As the use of steam power expanded,
replacing hand labor for digging ditches and manufacturing drainage
tiles, the production and installation of drainage tiles increased
rapidly. By 1880, 1,140 factories located mainly in Illinois, Indiana,
and Ohio manufactured drainage tiles that were used to drain wetlands
for farming (Pavelis, 1987). By 1882, more than 30,000 miles of tile
drains were operating in Indiana alone. By 1884, Ohio had 20,000 miles
of public ditches designed to drain 11 million acres of land (Wooten
and Jones, 1955).
Wetland conversion in the Central Valley of California began in the
mid-1800's, when farmers began diking and draining the flood-plain
areas of the valley for cultivation (fig. 9). Other States had notable
losses of wetlands between 1860 and 1900 (fig. 10).
Figure 9
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Figure 9. Wetlands of the Central Valley of California, circa 1820
(left) and 1990 (right). (Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
Status and Trends, unpub. data, 1994.)
Figure 10
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Figure 10. States with notable wetland loss, 1860 to 1900.
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1900 to 1950--Changing Technology
The first half of the twentieth century was a time of ambitious
engineering and drainage operations. Two World Wars, a rapidly growing
population, and industrial growth fueled the demand for land as
industry and agriculture propelled the United States to the status of
a world leader. Technology was increasingly important in manipulation
of the Nation's water resources. Two of the most notable projects that
affected wetlands were California's Central Valley Project and the
lock and dam system on the Mississippi River.
Although draining had begun one-half century earlier, wetland
modification in the Central Valley accelerated early in the 20th
century. By the 1920's, about 70 percent of the original wetland
acreage had been modified by levees, drainage, and water-diversion
projects (Frayer and others, 1989). In the 1930's, large-scale
flood-control projects, diversion dams, and water-control structures
were being built on the tributary rivers entering the valley.
Wetland modification also continued farther east. Before the
installation of the lock and dam system in 1924, the bottom lands of
the Mississippi River corridor were primarily wooded islands separated
by deep sloughs (Green, 1984). Hundreds of small lakes and ponds were
scattered throughout extensive wooded areas. The river channel was
subject to shifting sands and shallows, and changed constantly. Lake
and dam structures were built to create a permanent navigable
waterway. The water depth increased behind each dam to create a pool
that extended upstream to the next dam. The first pool was filled in
1935 and the system was completed when the last pool was filled in
1959. The resulting changes to the river system eliminated large
water-level fluctuations and helped stabilize water depth and
flooding. Bottom lands no longer dried out in summer, and former hay
meadows and wooded areas were converted to marshlands surrounding the
pools. One type of wetland was exchanged for another. Although some
pools of the Upper Mississippi River have problems with silt
deposition and restricted water circulation, these "created"wetland
areas provide habitat for fur-bearing animals, waterfowl, and fish.
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In other parts of the country, this era was marked by urban and
agricultural expansion projects that drained both large and small
wetlands. Some of the most ambitious projects were attempts to drain
and cultivate Horicon Marsh in Wisconsin in 1904; commercial timber
harvesting in southern Georgia, which began in 1908 as a precursor to
attempts to drain the Okefenokee Swamp (Trowell, 1988); and in 1914,
the draining of North Carolina's largest natural lake, Lake
Mattamuskeet, to create farmland (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
undated). Early in the century, land developers dug drainage ditches
in an attempt to drain a huge area for development in the vast
peatlands north of Red Lake, Minn. (Glaser, 1987). On July 29, 1917,
the Minneapolis Sunday Tribune ran a full page advertisement to
attract homesteaders to the Red Lake area--"perhaps the last of the
unsettled, uncut timberland in the middle of the country" (Wright,
1984). By 1930, nearly all of the prairie wetlands in Iowa, the
southern counties of Minnesota, and the Red River Valley in North
Dakota and Minnesota were drained (Schrader, 1955).
Attempts were underway to drain and farm large parts of The Everglades
(a huge expanse of wetlands in southern Florida). By the 1930's, more
than 400 miles of drainage canals were already in place (Lord, 1993).
(See article "Wetland Resources of Florida"in the State Summaries
section of this volume.) With the passage of the Sugar Act of 1934,
additional wetlands in southern Florida were drained and put into
sugarcane production. Sugarcane yields more than doubled from 410,000
to 873,000 tons between 1931 and 1941 (Clarke, 1977), largely at the
expense of wetland acreage. Severe flooding in southern Florida in the
1920's and again in the 1940's prompted the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers to build the Central and Southern Florida Project for flood
control. This massive undertaking, which required levees,
water-storage areas, channel improvements, and large pumps, caused
additional large modification to The Everglades' environment (Light
and Dineen, 1994).
Mechanized farm tractors had replaced horses and mules for farm labor
during this half century. The tractors could be used more effectively
than animals for drainage operations, and the old pasture land then
became available for improvement and production of additional crops.
In the Midwest and the North-central States, the use of tractors
probably contributed to the loss of millions of acres of small
wetlands and prairie potholes.
In the 1930's, the U.S. Government, in essence, provided free
engineering services to farmers to drain wetlands; and by the 1940's,
the Government shared the cost of drainage projects (Burwell and
Sugden, 1964). Organized drainage districts throughout the country
coordinated efforts to remove surface water from wetlands (Wooten and
Jones, 1955). Figure 11 shows areas of notable wetland losses between
1900 and 1950.
Figure 11
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Figure 11. States with notable wetland loss, 1900 to 1950.
In 1934, in stark contrast to these drainage activities, Congress
passed the Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act. This Act was one of the
first pieces of legislation to initiate the process of acquiring and
restoring America's wetlands.
_________________________________________________________________
The Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act was one of the first pieces of
legislation to initiate the process of acquiring and restoring
America's wetlands.
_________________________________________________________________
Sorry, this photo is not yet available
Drainage tile operation, circa 1940's. Tiles provide a conduit for
moving water from a wetland. (Photograph courtesy of U.S. Department
of Agriculture.)
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1950 to Present--Changing Priorities and Values
By the 1960's, most political, financial, and institutional incentives
to drain or destroy wetlands were in place. The Federal Government
encouraged land drainage and wetland destruction through a variety of
legislative and policy instruments. For example, the Watershed
Protection and Flood Prevention Act (1954) directly and indirectly
increased the drainage of wetlands near flood-control projects
(Erickson and others, 1979). The Federal Government directly
subsidized or facilitated wetland losses through its many public-works
projects, technical practices, and cost-shared drainage programs
administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (Erickson, 1979).
Tile and open-ditch drainage were considered conservation practices
under the Agriculture Conservation Program--whose policies caused
wetland losses averaging 550,000 acres each year from the mid-1950's
to the mid-1970's (Office of Technology Assessment, 1984). Agriculture
was responsible for more than 80 percent of these losses (Frayer and
others, 1983). Figure 12 shows States with notable wetland losses
between 1950 and 1990.
Since the 1970's, there has been increasing awareness that wetlands
are valuable areas that provide important environmental functions.
Public awareness of, and education about, wetlands has increased
dramatically since the early 1950's. Federal policies, such as the
"Swampbuster,"have eliminated incentives and other mechanisms that
have made the destruction of wetlands technically and economically
feasible. New laws, such as the Emergency Wetland Resources Act of
1986, also curtail wetland losses. (See article "Wetland Protection
Legislation"in this volume for information on legislation affecting
wetlands.) Some of the more ambitious drainage projects of earlier
years have been abandoned. Now, places like Lake Mattamuskeet, Horicon
Marsh, and the Okefenokee Swamp, which once were targeted for
drainage, have become National Wildlife Refuges that provide wetland
habitat for a variety of plants and animals.
Figure 12
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Figure 12. States with notable wetland loss, 1950 to 1990.
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The effects of the Federal policy reversal on the rate of wetland loss
are not clear. Estimates indicate that wetland losses in the
conterminous United States from the mid-1970's to the mid-1980's were
about 290,000 acres per year (Dahl and Johnson, 1991). This is about
one-half of the losses that occurred each year in the 1950's and
'60's. The preceding numbers do not include degraded or modified
wetlands. Although the estimate above reflects a declining rate of
loss, land development continues to destroy wetlands.
From about 1987 to the present, Federal efforts to restore wetlands
have increased. Although there is no precise number for all of the
wetland acres restored, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (1991)
estimated that between 1987 and 1990 about 90,000 acres were added to
the Nation's wetland inventory.
Attempts are underway now to restore some of The Everglades. The
remaining Everglades comprise about 2,300 square miles, three-fifths
of which is impounded in managed water-conservation areas (Lord,
1993). This wetland system currently is experiencing mercury
contamination and other water-quality problems, water-supply and
diversion controversies, declining wildlife populations, increasing
pressure from tourism, urban and agricultural expansion, and influx of
nuisance plants.
The magnitude of environmental alterations in Florida, with numerous
conflicting interests, exemplifies the dilemma of managing water
resources and wetlands. What initially seemed to be a matter of water
removal turned into an extremely complex and costly issue involving
water-use objectives at all levels of government (Tebeau, 1980).
Today there are more than 100 dams within the California Central
Valley drainage basins and thousands of miles of water-delivery
canals. Water is diverted for irrigation, hydroelectric power, and
municipal and industrial water supplies. Only 14 percent of the
original wetland acreage remains. The Tulare Lake Basin has been
virtually drained, leaving only remnant wetland areas and a dry
lakebed, and Buena Vista and Kern Lakes rarely contain water (fig. 9).
Currently (1994), manipulation of water levels in wetlands rather than
the complete removal of water as in the past, is a trend that affects
wetlands. Partial drainage or lowering of the water levels to allow
for certain uses is becoming prevalent in some parts of the country.
Effects of this type of management are uncertain.
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Example of Changing Attitudes--horicon marsh
The history of the Horicon Marsh in Wisconsin is an example of how
people's attitudes toward wetlands have changed through time (fig.
13). Horicon Marsh was dammed, flooded, and renamed Lake Horicon in
1846. At that time, it was the largest manmade lake in the world
(about 4 miles wide by 14 miles long) (Wisconsin Department of Natural
Resources, 1990). Lake Horicon was used for commercial transportation
and for commercial fishing. In 1869, the dam was removed and the land
returned to marsh. In 1883, two sportsmen's clubs, which leased the
marsh area, reported that 500,000 ducks hatched annually in the marsh.
They also reported that 30,000 muskrats and mink were trapped in the
southern half of the marsh. Huge flocks of geese also were reported
(Freeman, 1948). In 1904, attempts were made to drain the marsh and
sell the reclaimed land for truck farms. Lawsuits resulting from
inadequate drainage halted the reclamation effort.
In 1921, local conservationists began efforts to protect Horicon Marsh
as a game refuge, and the State of Wisconsin created the Horicon Marsh
Wildlife Refuge in July 1927. Later, to avoid legal confrontations
with the local farmers, the State bought property and (or) water
rights to the southern half of the refuge and the Federal Government
purchased rights to the northern half. In 1990, Horicon Marsh was
added to the sites recognized by the Convention on Wetlands of
International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat.
Estimates indicate that today slightly more than 100 million acres of
wetlands remain in the conterminous United States. Although the rate
of wetland conversion has slowed in recent years, wetland losses
continue to outdistance wetland gains.
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Figure 13. Horicon Marsh, Wis., evolved from original marsh (1846), to
lake (1853), to swamp (1881), to wildlife refuge (1984). (Source:
Sequence is left to right, top to bottom, Historical Society of
Wisconsin negative number WHi (X3) 50111, WHi (X3) 50212, WHi (X3)
50113; U.S. Geological Survey, 1984.)
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-----
For Additional Information:
Thomas E. Dahl,
National Wetlands Inventory,
9720 Executive Center Drive,
Suite 101 - Monroe Building,
St. Petersburg, FL 33702 Gregory J. Allord,
U.S. Geological Survey,
505 Science Drive,
Madison, WI 53711
_________________________________________________________________
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