V. Federal Wetland Policies and years. Hoover questioned the expense and overall National Trends public efficiency of these subsidies (Hoover, 1969). The U.S. Department of the Interior conducted a series of studies that exhaustively explored the subsi- Federal wetland policy has evolved over our Nation’s dies’ role in wetland conversion, finding that the sub- history. During the period of settlement and national sidies did promote wetland conversion (USDI, 1988 expansion, incentives for converting wetlands to other and 1994). The Swampbuster provisions of the 1985 uses hastened wetland loss. Direct incentives for con- Food Security Act and changes in the 1986 Tax version remained until late in this century. Gradually, Reform Act largely eliminated indirect government direct and indirect incentives were eliminated and assistance in the form of farm program benefits and policies to conserve wetlands were adopted. With the income tax deductions for wetland conversion adoption of the "no net loss" goal, efforts to conserve (Heimlich and Langner, 1986; Heimlich, 1994). and restore wetlands accelerated. Drainage and Flood Control The Era of Wetland Exploitation Federal involvement in drainage programs dates back In the earliest stages of settlement, farmers bypassed to 1902 when the Bureau of Reclamation was estab- wetlands in favor of dry land with good water and lished to develop irrigation in the West. Drainage was trees. Only toward the end of the 19th century, when required to fully use the new irrigation capacity, pro- easily accessible farmland grew scarce, did farmers viding new Federal involvement in agricultural turn to the previously bypassed wetlands in earnest. drainage programs (USDI, 1988). Farmers using Bureau irrigation encountered drainage problems By a strange quirk of fate those who blazed while developing irrigation systems in such areas as the first trails and developed the first farms in the Newlands Project in Nevada, the Modesto Iowa found [...] that their timber-prairie farms Irrigation District in California, the Mesilla Valley of near the rivers were often less valuable than New Mexico, and the marsh lands of Western Oregon. the farms developed by those who came much Large-scale agricultural drainage solved irrigation later and took the land they had avoided. To problems in the Imperial Valley of California. Other be sure, the wet lands required considerable drainage projects included the Columbia Basin drainage expense, but even so these wet lands (Washington), Grand Valley (Nebraska), Big Horn were eventually a better bargain (Peterson, Basin (Montana and Wyoming), Oahe (South Dakota), 1967, pp. 448-449). Weber Basin (Utah), Garrison (North Dakota), and Big Thompson (Colorado). To encourage farmers to convert wetlands, Congress gave 64.9 million acres of wetlands to 15 States in the The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began rechannel- Swampland Acts of 1849, 1850, and 1860. Congress ing work on the Mississippi River in the 1870’s wanted the States to reclaim wetlands by constructing (Beauchamp, 1987). Flooding in the 1940’s motivat- levees and drains to reduce flooding and eliminate ed Congress to enact the Flood Control Act of 1944, mosquito breeding areas. States transferred nearly all which further authorized the Corps of Engineers to of the granted lands to private owners who converted construct major drainage and flood control channels. large acreages to other uses (Shaw and Fredine, Many dormant drainage districts in the Mississippi 1971). Since then, many Federal programs have pro- Valley were reactivated to exploit the benefits of the vided incentives for wetland conversion, including newly enhanced flood control infrastructure for agri- those that subsidize agriculture, support reservoir con- cultural drainage. Additional flood control work pro- struction for flood control, irrigation, and hydroelec- vided drainage outlets in response to floods in both tric power, support highway projects, provide flood the Mississippi and the Missouri Valleys in the early disaster relief and flood insurance, subsidize and pro- 1950’s, and additional farm drainage exploited the vide tax incentives to forestry, and establish grazing new outlets. Between 1929 and 1974, Army Corps of policies on Federal land (USDI, 1994). Engineers flood control projects were authorized affecting 5.5 million acres in the Lower Mississippi Agricultural subsidies are an indirect incentive that alluvial plain. Construction was completed on 4.5 has accelerated wetland conversion over the past 60 million acres (USDI, 1988). 24 Wetlands and Agriculture: Private Interests and Public Benefits / AER-765 Economic Research Service/USDA The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) helped Conservation Service began straightening stream farmers drain wetlands from an early date. Drainage channels to provide more efficient outlets for drainage inventories in 1906 and 1922 identified 75-79 million and flood waters (Gillette, 1972). acres of wetlands with potential for drainage to accommodate agricultural production (Gray, and oth- Drainage and Cropland Expansion ers, 1923; Wright, 1907). Beginning in 1936, USDA provided cost-sharing for wetland drainage, a practice Cooperative efforts between farmers and Federal and that continued into the late 1970’s (USDI, 1988 and State agencies expanded the supply of land for farm- 1994; Holmes, 1980; National Audubon Society, ing. Mattson concluded that in the Mississippi Delta 1996). The Civilian Conservation Corps and other "Land clearing was common and appeared to be Federal relief agencies conducted drainage activities linked to better control of water regimes and flooding. in the 1930’s. In 1953, Congress explicitly linked In these circumstances it would seem inevitable that flood control and agricultural drainage when the improved drainage linked to an arterial channel sys- Federal Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention tem being installed by the Corps of Engineers and Act (P.L. 83-566) directed the Army Corps of other projects, would hasten the conversion of remain- Engineers and USDA to create a formal partnership ing hardwood forests to highly productive, generally for constructing drainage outlet channels in coopera- large, crop fields" (Mattson, 1975, p. 31). tion with State and local governments. The Army Corps worked primarily in main stems of major Federal assistance to drain wetlands for production of rivers, while USDA undertook upstream projects in subsidized crops expanded agricultural production in tributaries. order to expand crop base acreage in high-price years. This often led to underuse or abandonment of crop- P.L. 566 authorized USDA to plan and construct land as long-term retirement and annual set-aside sup- watershed improvements. USDA’s Soil Conservation ply control measures focused on marginally produc- Service (now the Natural Resources Conservation tive land in low-price years. For example, the North Service) provided technical assistance and cost shar- Carolina Conservation Needs Committee in 1962 ing for ditches, subsurface drains, conduits to convey extrapolated a gain of over 45 percent (144,800 acres) water from fields without causing erosion, protection of cropland for the nine major crops in the 10-county devices for tile outlets, and surface field drainage Albemarle area (Hoover, 1969). Large-scale conver- (Beauchamp, p. 19; Gadsby, and others, 1976). The sion in the area in the 1970’s affected thousands more Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service’s acres as commodity prices rose (Carter, 1975). By the (now the Farm Service Agency) role in financing new mid-1980’s, however, problems with drainage permits, drainage on farms has been relatively minor and conversion feasibility, and commodity economics declined over time (Pavelis, 1987b, p. 161). By the forced abandonment of large acreages of unconverted mid-1980’s, less than 10 percent of all existing sur- and partially converted land that were donated to the face or subsurface drainage improvements could be Fish and Wildlife Service to expand the existing attributed to Federal financing provided under the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. Agricultural Conservation Program. The Era of Policy Transition However, a major impact of small watershed pro- grams under P.L. 566 was construction of outlet chan- Even as the conversion of wetlands to other uses contin- nels into which landowners could drain their wetlands ued at a rapid pace throughout the early part of this cen- (USDI, 1988, p. 19). Most channelizing work under tury, scientists, conservationists, and the public were P.L. 566 was in four Southeastern States: Georgia, beginning to recognize the unique and important func- Louisiana, Mississippi, and North Carolina. A 1972 tions and values of wetlands. Gradually, the supply of study by Arthur D. Little concluded that, "On balance, remaining wetlands decreased (moving to the right in the weight of evidence is marginally in favor of chan- fig. 1) and wetland benefits became more widely neling both untouched natural streams and man- known. Public attitudes and public policy began to shift altered channels in terms of ...economic effects." from supporting and subsidizing wetland conversion to Conflicts with environmentalists concerned about encouraging wetland conservation and restoration preservation of wetlands began when the Soil (Carey, and others, 1990; Dahl and Allord, 1996). Economic Research Service/USDA Wetlands and Agriculture: Private Interests and Public Benefits / AER-765 25 Part of