By Rebecca Leamon

lthough wetlands comprise less than four percent of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, they are one of its most critical resources. Maryland has lost 73 percent of its historic wetlands, more than any other state in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. In an effort to protect Maryland's remaining wetlands, the General Assembly passed the Nontidal Wetlands Act in 1989, whose goal is to achieve "no net loss" of wetland acreage or function in Maryland.
Over the summer, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation studied wetland mitigation efforts under the Nontidal Wetlands Act and has released its findings in its August, 1997 report entitled "Maryland Nontidal Wetland Mitigation: A Progress Report." The project investigated Maryland Department of the Environment?s permit and mitigation efforts and conducted field investigations of a random sample of mitigation projects. The study concludes that Maryland has suffered an estimated net loss of wetland functions of 51 acres over the past six years. The figure of 51 acres lost includes only direct and permanent wetland losses authorized by the regulatory program. It does not consider exempt, illegal, indirect, or temporary wetland impacts nor wetland conversions. In contrast, MDE claims that Maryland has gained 122 acres of wetlands from 1991 to 1996. MDE?s records show a net gain in wetlands because the figures are based on authorized impacts and required mitigation; in other words, "paper" gains and losses. The report urges MDE to record actual instead of authorized gains and losses to monitor progress.
In its field studies of 15 wetlands mitigation projects, CBF found that few of the mitigation projects meet minimum performance standards established for mitigation projects in Maryland. Nearly all of the sites required additional work. Granted, all of the sites investigated are still in the five-year monitoring period, so permittees and MDE still have time to remedy problems. But CBF found that MDE's staff resources are already limited and strained, so much so that MDE is failing to enforce project requirements and deadlines, or to track the status of mitigation projects.
We still lack the mechanisms to measure what wetlands really are, and to know exactly what is lost and created. Much of this information will take decades to collect. We do know that it is much easier to restore wetlands than to create them - it is even easier to conserve them so that nothing needs to be replaced. For a complete copy of the report, Maryland Nontidal Wetland Mitigation: A Progress Report, by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, August, 1997, contact CBF at 410-268-8816.