THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 6, 1995 TAG: 9510060003
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
A new federal program here for preserving the total acreage of wetlands makes all the sense in the world.
It applies not to the wetlands that are wet year-round - not to postcard-pretty marshes - but to land that is dry much of the time but still serves as a vital water filter during rainy times. The federal term for such land is ``headwater wetlands.''
Without headwater wetlands, the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem is as vulnerable as a car engine with no oil or air filters.
A person desiring to build on a site that would cause the destruction of 10 acres or less of headwater wetlands must ask the Army Corps of Engineers for permission. Previously, a builder given permission to destroy, say, five acres of headwater wetlands would have to compensate by creating five acres of comparable wetlands elsewhere.
Such a requirement is an expensive nuisance to builders.
The new program calls for creating wetland banks. Those are large tracts of land that once were drained for farming but that the wetland-bank owners have returned to wetland status.
Under the new program, the builder has the option of buying credit on acres in a wetlands bank. The new program still isn't cheap for the builder, but at least it's quick and clean. The builder is not responsible for maintaining the wetlands on which he buys credit. That is done by the wetlands-bank owner. When credits for all the acres are sold, the land is given to the federal government to remain as wetlands forever.
If the Corps of Engineers deems the five acres being destroyed as more valuable than the land on which credits are being purchased, the Corps may require the builder to buy credits on 10 acres or more.
When all works properly, the Corps prevents any especially valuable wetlands from destruction. The destruction of less-valuable wetlands is more than compensated for. Builders are free to build.
The old method of creating what one federal official called ``postage-stamp wetlands'' here and there often is ineffective, because the tiny artificial wetlands tended to die off. Builders still may choose the old method, but a larger wetlands, properly supervised, stands a much greater chance of survival.
The first wetlands bank in Hampton Roads is a 131-acre tract adjoining the Great Dismal Swamp. It is owned by the Chesapeake company White Cedar LLC, whose three investors are betting they can make money by returning land to its natural state and selling credits. When all credits are sold, the land will be donated to the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge.
Some people will object that anyone would profit when development destroys wetlands. But there is a net gain in wetlands. The 131 acres on the edge of a swamp have a greater chance than a five-acre tract somewhere else. Investors should be rewarded for the chances they take in creating the wetlands banks in hopes of selling credits. by CNB