August 2003

Then and Now

In the 1600s, over 220 million acres of wetlands existed in the U.S's contiguous 48 states. Today, there are only about 100 million acres left (95% freshwater, 5% saltwater).

In 1987, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service charted the losses to wetlands from the 1780s to the 1980s, finding more than half had been lost. During the same 200-year period, the population of the United States doubled more than six times, growing from about 4 million in 1790 to 257 million in 1993 – and 291 million by 2003.

In 1997, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conducted another study to determine wetland loss between 1986 and 1997, finding that the U.S. loses almost 60,000 acres annually (a net of 644,000 acres of wetlands in ten years). During this decade, the United States added another 30 million people to its population.

What We're Losing...and Why

A crucial part of our ecosystem, wetlands provide real ecosystem services for the human population. Wetlands filter our drinking water, provide natural flood control, serve as a resting place for migratory birds, furnish feeding and spawning places for fish, and provide habitat for many species of animals and a variety of unique plant life. Additionally, wetlands provide a home for one-third of bird species in the United States, and nearly half of the animals on the endangered species list in the U.S. rely on wetlands for their survival. The preservation of wetlands is fundamental to the maintenance of the ecological integrity of the United States.

Without curbing rampant U.S. population growth, however, there is no chance of preserving our nation's precious wetlands. The U.S. experienced its largest population jump in history during the 1990s – over 33 million people, bringing our current population to over 291 million, and according to Census statistics, immigration is responsible for nearly 90 percent of this growth. If current fertility rates and legal and illegal immigration numbers – totaling 3.3 million a year – remain unchanged, the U.S. is on trend to double its population by 2050 and even surpassing one billion by 2100. By continuing this level of growth, we can expect to virtually wipe out our vital wetlands – and other ecosystems – in the next 100 years. However, there is a solution. We could save our precious wetlands and protect our environment if we take steps to achieve U.S. population stabilization. One act of Congress could bring legal immigration down from over 1 million per year, closer to historic levels – about 100,000 legal immigrants per year – putting us on track for U.S. population stabilization.

South Hit Hardest

The Southern U.S. experienced the greatest loss in wetlands and the highest growth in population. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, draining wetlands for agricultural use was historically the leading cause of wetland loss (accounting for 85-87% of loss), but the emerging cause is land development for human use. Wetland loss now is attributed to urban development (30%), agriculture (26%), silviculture (23%), and rural development (21%).

Coastal wetlands are disappearing at alarming rates as well. Louisiana contains 40 percent of the coastal wetlands in the lower 48 states, and is losing from 25 to 35 square miles of wetlands a year to open water because of erosion and subsidence. The most dramatic picture of wetlands loss, however, has occurred in the Florida Everglades, due mainly to human-driven development.

CASE STUDY

Florida Everglades: A Path to Destruction

The well-known Florida Everglades, once a lush four-million-acre wetland wilderness, is now reduced to less than half its original size. With most of Southern Florida's 6 million residents dependent on the Everglades and its aquifers for their drinking water, there is now an increased interest in preserving what is left.

Billed as "one of the largest engineering projects", the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan claims it will capture 1 trillion gallons of rainwater and distribute it to farms, people, and the Everglades. The plan is supposed to supply enough water for South Florida's population to double by 2050 to 12 million.

Called the "ultimate restoration project", the plan supposedly preserves South Florida's water supplies and ensures flood control for South Florida's ever-growing population, and includes building 18 reservoirs for the state that leads the nation in per-capita water consumption. It also presumably will improve water flows to the Everglades.

The Commission for a Sustainable South Florida warned in 1995 that "rapid population growth and sprawling development patterns are leading South Florida down a path toward wall-to-wall suburbanization."

Sugar farms now are farming over 700,000 acres in the Everglades Agriculture Area, adding to the pollution and destruction of the Everglades. And, with the Army Corps of Engineers still approving more than 99 percent of development projects in Florida's wetlands, sacrificing hundreds of acres of wetlands at once, it appears that the restoration plan may well not be able to preserve the mere two million acres that remain of Florida's biological gem. With people and sugar farms coming first, restoration and protection of the Everglades takes a back seat to Florida's vastly growing population. Would it not be better to solve Florida's problems with a lasting solution – U.S. population stabilization?

Population-Environment Balance is a national, non-profit membership organization dedicated to maintaining the quality of life in the United States through population stabilization.