Maryland is failing to stem the loss of freshwater wetlands to development because of serious flaws in the government's efforts to replace the ecologically important areas, according to a study by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
Challenging assertions by the Glendening administration that it has reversed the state's decline in wetlands, the Annapolis-based environmental group contends that overburdened state regulators are unable to ensure that the wet areas being bulldozed for houses and highways are properly replaced.
Regulators are "swamped," said Thomas V. Grasso, director of the foundation's Maryland office. He said the group found that the state lacks the staff to keep up with the workload and that many man-made wetlands built under state supervision do not measure up to the naturally damp areas they were meant to supplant.
Efforts last week to reach Gov. Parris N. Glendening for comment on the bay foundation's review were unsuccessful, but officials of the state Department of the Environment, which regulates wetlands, vow to correct problems in constructing replacements.
"It's not there yet, but we'reworking toward it," said Robert Hoyt, assistant environment secretary and a former bay foundation official.
Wetlands constitute only 4 percent of the Chesapeake Bay region, but they are one of its most important resources. They act as "natural kidneys," filtering pollutants from runoff and ground water before they can foul streams and the bay. They also help control flooding and provide food and shelter for many different plants and animals.
Though nearly 600,000 acres remain, Maryland has lost a greater share of its wetlands than any other state in the region. Scientists estimate 73 percent of the marshy areas that existed in Colonial times have been filled or drained by farming and development.
Tighter government regulation in the 1970s virtually halted losses of tidal wetlands, which border the bay and its tributaries. But freshwater or inland wetlands face development pressure because they are more widely dispersed and harder to identify.
Under a 1989 state law meant to protect freshwater wetlands, landowners must "mitigate" or replace any they are permitted to fill or drain. They can do that either by carving new marsh out of nearby uplands or by paying into a state fund to create or restore wetlands elsewhere. The goal of the law is to achieve "no net loss," both in acreage and in the many roles wetlands play in the environment.
