PARENT SESSION
Symposium 5: Ecological Forces and Land Management Challenges for the Southeastern Landscape
Organized by: D De Steven and BS Collins
Tuesday, August 5. 8:00 AM to 11:30 AM, SITCC Chatham Ballroom B.
Status and trends for forested wetlands in the Southeast.
Carter, Derb1, 1 Southern Environmental Law Center, Chapel Hill, NC
ABSTRACT- Approximately one-half of remaining wetlands in the lower 48 states is in the Southeast. Nearly one-fifth (17%) of Southeast forests is wetland and approximately three-fourths (74%) of the wetlands in the region are forests. Functions and values of forested wetlands are well documented and include filtration or storage of sediments, nutrients or other pollutants; flood or storm water storage and retention; groundwater recharge and discharge; and habitat for plants and wildlife. In the highly altered Southeastern Coastal Plain, forested wetland tracts provide most of the large contiguous forested blocks of habitat required by several rare, declining and threatened or endangered species. Since 1988, federal administrations have established a national goal of no net loss of wetland acreage and function. Wetland trend data indicate progress toward the no net loss goal. Loss of forested wetlands remains high with most of the loss in the Southeast. Intensive silviculture (drainage and conversion of wetlands to pine plantations) has replaced agriculture as the leading cause of wetland loss in the Southeast. The federal Clean Water Act exempts from permitting requirements narrowly defined silvicultural activities that have little or no adverse effect on wetlands. Federal law prohibits conversion of a wetland to a non-wetland without a permit. Failure to enforce this requirement of federal law on intensive silviculture sites that convert wetlands to pine plantations severely undermines the goal of achieving no net loss of the nation's wetlands. A recent court decision removing federal protection of "isolated" wetlands is likely to result in significant losses of unique forested wetland types in the Southeast since most states in the region fail to protect wetlands under state law.
Key words: Southeast, wetlands, forested wetlands