How many wetlands have already been destroyed? And why?

Of the original 215 million acres of wetlands existing 200 years ago in the continental United States, less than 100 million acres remain. Check the map at EPA to find whether your state has experienced low, moderate, or high wetlands loss. Twenty-two states have lost at least 50 percent of their original wetlands. Seven states have lost over 80 percent (Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Iowa, California, and Ohio). Since the 1970’s the most extensive wetlands loss has occurred in Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina.

Wetland losses from the 1950’s to the 1970’s averaged about 458,000 acres per year. Agricultural development was responsible for about 87 percent of this loss. In the 1990’s wetland losses have averaged about 117,000 acres per year, due to passage of the Clean Water Act, state and local government wetland protections, and the vigilance of community conservationists who challenge the ongoing draining and filling of wetlands, mostly for residential and commercial development.

The remaining 100 million acres of wetlands in the continental U.S. comprise an area about the size of California. Alaska has an estimated 170 to 200 million acres, while Hawaii has 52,000 acres.

Of the 100 million acres of wetlands remaining in the continental U.S., Florida has the most, with 11 million acres. Next are Louisiana (8.8 million), Minnesota (8.7 million), and Texas (7.6 million).

The remaining wetlands, in millions of acres, are:

A lot of wetland loss is attributable to agricultural activities, such as draining, diking and plowing of wetlands. Other human activities that lead to wetlands destruction include:

• Development projects, such as subdivisions, shopping malls and business parks
• Dikes and levees along rivers to divert flood waters
• Pollution
• Logging
• Mining
• Road construction
• Non-native invasive plants
• Grazing

Preventing wetlands loss is good for the economy, because filling or draining wetlands costs a lot of money in lost tourist dollars, reduction of fisheries, repairing flood damage. It also costs a lot more to restore a wetland that to just protect it in the first place. Destroying wetlands means fewer birds and less wildlife. It means we leave a damaged world behind us for our children to inherit.

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