By nearly all accounts, wetlands have been disappearing
at an alarming rate across the country: More than 1 million
acres were lost between 1985 and 1995, according to a recent
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service study.
That's one reason why there was such a hue and cry when
Hyundai announced in 1995 that it wanted to build a computer
factory on more than a dozen acres of wetlands in west Eugene.
But the hubbub over Hyundai overshadowed a major effort
to protect and restore wetlands in west Eugene. Over the
past five years, the federal government has been quietly
spending money snapping up much of west Eugene's remaining
wetlands.
Since the West Eugene Wetlands Plan was adopted in 1992,
the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has bought about 1,100
acres with $4.5 million secured by now-retired Sen. Mark
Hatfield, R-Ore.
Congress is considering authorizing another $1 million for
next year.
The Nature Conservancy, a nonprofit environmental group,
owns the 335-acre Willow Creek Nature Preserve. State and
local governments own another 400 acres or so.
The wetlands preservation effort has been hailed nationally
as an example of how environmental protection and development
can coexist.
Landowners that wipe out wetlands when they build factories,
stores and warehouses now can buy into the city of Eugene's "mitigation
bank," which restores or enhances public wetlands to offset
the loss of wetlands on private property.
Under the wetlands plan, public land is used as the "bank," drawing
on wetlands that already have been created or restored. Developers
then can buy "credits" to offset the loss of wetlands lost
to a particular commercial or industrial development.
Landowners typically pay $30,000 or more for each one-acre
credit, but the amount of money and land that must be "mitigated" can
vary, depending on the quality of the wetlands being wiped
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The idea is aimed at complying with a section
of the federal Clean Water Act that calls for "no net loss" of
wetlands.
In general, if a development wipes out five acres of wetlands,
at least the same amount of wetlands must be created, restored
or enhanced somewhere else.
The plan evolved after city planners realized that much
of west Eugene, which had been zoned decades ago as industrial
and commercial land, was considered wetlands under a revised
Clean Water Act.
Wetlands laws "conflicted with our long-standing plans for
Industrial development In west Eugene. We had to come up
with a different way of approaching the problem," says Louis
Kroeck, a landscape architect with the city.
The massive land-acquisition program hasn't been without
controversy. Critics say some early restoration efforts
failed And they question whether it is possible to truly
offset the loss of wetlands on private property by doing
things such as planting native plant species and digging
ponds.
Landowners are wiping out high~quality wetlands in exchange
for creating or protecting lower quality wetlands somewhere
else, critics claim. "This whole thing is a facade," says
Tom Pringle, head of the West Eugene Wetlands Friends, which
has fought a number of development projects In the area.
"It's just a bailout for the property owners who want out
from under the Clean Water Act." Pringle also says development "in
the heart of west Eugene's wetlands" is a scattershot approach
that will fragment the area, reducing the overall amount
of high quality habitat for wildlife. Development should
be on the edges of the wetlands instead, he says. But Kroeck
says the West Eugene Wetlands Plan is aimed at providing
a cohesive, Interconnected effort. The city and other government
agencies also have control over how the wetlands are restored.
The wetlands plan, coupled with the cash Hatfield secured
before he retired, allows the city to protect larger tracts
of intact wetlands, Kroeck added.
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