Wetland Resources - Conservation
In reading the last part of the article that I’d found posted in the Lansing MDEQ offices on the bulletin board, the report gave a rather extensive section on Wetland Resources’ Conservation. Here are a few of the facts.
Wetland losses are now regulated by several Federal statutory prohibitions and incentives. Most important laws to this end are such documents as the 1899 Rivers and Harbors Act; the 1972 Clean Water Act and its amendments; the 1986 Emergency Wetlands Resources Act, to name a few.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has authority to regulate activites in navigable waters that include diking, deepening, excavating, etc. under Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act. The most often used Federal legislation for protecting wetlands is the related section 404 of the Clean Water Act. While the Corps issues permits on discharged materials into wetlands, permits are subject to review and can be vetoed by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
In October 1984 the Michigan Department of Natural Resources started a wetlands program in line with section 404. Michigan’s wetland conservation program comes from the principal statutory of Public Act 203, the Goemaere-Anderson Wetland Protection Act of 1980. This pertains to placing fill in a wetland, dredging or removal of soil or minerals from the wetland, draining surface water and constructing, operating and maintaining development in a wetland.
The EPA keeps the Federal review of the State program, including veto authority. Permit applications for “major discharges” or those greater than 10,000 cubic yards, discharges that contain toxic materials and discharges into areas that are determined to be unique, attract EPA review.
Along with usual planning and zoning responsibilities at county and local levels, some municipalities have adopted guidelines or ordinances to protect wetlands such as Allegan and Kalamzoo Counties nearby us.
There are a number of private wetland groups that pursue wetland restoration projects such as the Wetlands Conservation Association and the Wetlands Foundation of West Michigan which helps restore, enhance and fund wetlands kept primarily for habitat values. Many other groups were listed in this article by Erin Lynch and Marcus Waldron which are worth looking into: Michigan Audubon Society, Michigan Lake and Stream Associations Inc., Sierra Club, West Michigan Environmental Action Council, were named among many others.
If you look into any of these organizations and find good information, please send it onto us either in the comment section or to the Celery Pond Advocates, PO Box 693, South Haven, MI 49090.
