Nontidal

Trying to find a middle ground between land development and preservation is proving exceedingly difficult for the Bush administration. Now the Environmental Protection Agency wants to reverse an earlier decision and shrink the amount of acreage defined as wetlands. The potential hazards for the Chesapeake Bay are enormous.When President Bush ran for election in 1988, he pledged there would be "no net loss of wetlands" during his administration. That was an important declaration because wetlands are so critical to a healthy ecosystem.

THERE'S A MESSAGE for the future of Maryland's 9,000 miles of freshwater streams in Montgomery County's decision a couple of years ago to limit development along some 20 miles of the upper Paint Branch, where trout thrive not far from the Capital Beltway. The suburban county allocated $13.5 million, its whole parks acquisition budget for six years, to preserve open space in the little stream's watershed. Only then could they ensure that "impervious surfaces" would never amount to more than 10 percent of the lands draining runoff from rainfall to Paint Branch, a local icon of environmental quality.

Environmentalists warn that new federal wetlands guidelines being weighed by the Bush administration could eliminate development restrictions on millions of acres of nontidal wetlands, including up to one-fourth of the inland marshy areas on Maryland's Eastern Shore.With pressure growing in Congress to ease federal wetlands protections, environmentalists say they fear the administration is moving to scale back regulation of the more controversial wetlands, which lack waterfowl, standing water and other obvious marshland features.

THE CHESAPEAKE Bay Foundation's critical report on the state's protection of freshwater wetlands comes as no surprise. Gov. Parris N. Glendening and his officials have been scored for their wetlands policy and performance by the Environmental Protection Agency, members of Congress and other environmental organizations.Sadly, the state loses more natural wetlands to builders sanctioned by the Department of the Environment, while bureaucrats boast of success in creating man-made "replacement" wetlands.

WASHINGTON -- Maryland could lose from one-half to 80 percent of the meadows and forests now defined as wetlands if the Environmental Protection Agency approves a more strict definition of what a wetland is, Maryland environmental experts and lawmakers said yesterday.In field tests on 17 state wetland sites, it was determined that at least eight -- and possibly as many as 14 -- of the sites would no longer qualify for federal protection under the strict EPA proposals, said Michael Slattery, senior project manager of the nontidal wetland division of the state Department of Natural Resources.

Roughly 4,500 acres of wetlands are being lost every year in the Chesapeake Bay region through illegal filling and loopholes in government regulation, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation says.In a report to be released today, the Annapolis-based environmental group says that despite government pledges to ensure "no net loss" of remaining wetlands, the amount of marshland bulldozed or drained every four years equals in size Dorchester County's vast Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge.Wetlands -- from salt marsh to freshwater bog to damp woods -- act as natural filters for pollution and provide food and shelter for fish, shellfish and waterfowl.

THE MAY 10 editorial, ''Federal protection for wetlands,'' painted an inaccurate picture of the current status and management of Maryland's wetlands.First, the facts show that Maryland's wetlands receive greater protection today than ever before. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has estimated that Maryland lost wetlands at an average of 617 acres per year from 1982 through 1989. In 1996, under the Maryland Department of the Environment's stewardship, only 53 acres of wetland impacts were authorized through the regulatory program.

A Berlin homebuilder has been fined $1,000 for illegally filling wetlands near Ocean City last fall, in a case that apparently stems from local activists' complaints about environmental abuses on the lower Eastern Shore.Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. announced yesterday that Robert Jay Hudson, 46, pleaded guilty Friday in Worcester County District Court to violating Maryland's nontidal wetlands protection law. Judge Lloyd Simpkins fined Hudson $10,000, but suspended $9,000 and placed Hudson on probation for one year.

THE CHESAPEAKE Bay Foundation's critical report on the state's protection of freshwater wetlands comes as no surprise. Gov. Parris N. Glendening and his officials have been scored for their wetlands policy and performance by the Environmental Protection Agency, members of Congress and other environmental organizations.Sadly, the state loses more natural wetlands to builders sanctioned by the Department of the Environment, while bureaucrats boast of success in creating man-made "replacement" wetlands.

President Clinton's new wetlands policy sets a familiar course of compromise, split the difference, end the gridlock, get win-win results: it balances economic interests with environmental needs and satisfies neither save-it nor pave-it advocates.The Clinton program, aimed at protecting the 270 million acres of essential bogs and marshes of America, marks a departure from the political confusion and paralysis of the Bush years and steers toward a sensible resolution of a complex issue.It declares as national policy "no net loss of wetlands," which have been disappearing at the rate of more than 200,000 acres a year, and pledges to increase that natural resource.

A Berlin homebuilder has been fined $1,000 for illegally filling wetlands near Ocean City last fall, in a case that apparently stems from local activists' complaints about environmental abuses on the lower Eastern Shore.Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. announced yesterday that Robert Jay Hudson, 46, pleaded guilty Friday in Worcester County District Court to violating Maryland's nontidal wetlands protection law. Judge Lloyd Simpkins fined Hudson $10,000, but suspended $9,000 and placed Hudson on probation for one year.

THE MAY 10 editorial, ''Federal protection for wetlands,'' painted an inaccurate picture of the current status and management of Maryland's wetlands.First, the facts show that Maryland's wetlands receive greater protection today than ever before. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has estimated that Maryland lost wetlands at an average of 617 acres per year from 1982 through 1989. In 1996, under the Maryland Department of the Environment's stewardship, only 53 acres of wetland impacts were authorized through the regulatory program.

STEVENSVILLE -- The patch of woods behind the Kmart store on U.S. 50 doesn't fit the picture-book image of a wetland.There are no cattails, paddling ducks or watery vistas; just loblolly pines and other trees -- red maple, sweet gum and hollies -- poking out of a green tangle of poison ivy.But the blackened leaves that squish underfoot, and scattered puddles of murky water, tell William A. Jenkins that this Eastern Shore woods qualifies as a wetland --...

What would the world be, once bereft,of wet and of wildness? Let them be left.-- Gerard Manley Hopkins,Poems, No. 56BRIDGEVILLE, Del. -- Along a wooded stream off busy U.S. 13, some major digging equipment of the local farm conservation district is rearranging the scenery in pickup truck-sized bites.At first glance, this appears to be business as usual: work on the drainage system that has enabled farming across the low, flat Delmarva Peninsula for centuries and straightened thousands of miles of streams, now more akin to ditches.

Roughly 4,500 acres of wetlands are being lost every year in the Chesapeake Bay region through illegal filling and loopholes in government regulation, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation says.In a report to be released today, the Annapolis-based environmental group says that despite government pledges to ensure "no net loss" of remaining wetlands, the amount of marshland bulldozed or drained every four years equals in size Dorchester County's vast Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge.Wetlands -- from salt marsh to freshwater bog to damp woods -- act as natural filters for pollution and provide food and shelter for fish, shellfish and waterfowl.

As the 1994 Maryland General Assembly heads toward its midnight close on April 11, let's look first at the bright side for impending Chesapeake Bay legislation.It won't take many paragraphs.Rushing toward approval is an obscure measure that would bypass the normal two-year wait for a crabbing license for anyone "pardoned after incarceration for a criminal offense."It's solely to help Kirk Bloodsworth, the Eastern Shore waterman mistakenly imprisoned for a 1984 murder in Baltimore County and pardoned last December by the governor.

Sorting out all the claims on wetlandsYour readers of May 22 may be excused if they have difficulty in sorting out claims and counterclaims regarding the effectiveness of the state's nontidal wetlands law.In that edition we were favored with a letter to the editor by Dr. Torrey Brown, secretary of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources; another letter from Curtis C. Bohlen, scientist with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation; an editorial on the subject; and...

As the 1994 Maryland General Assembly heads toward its midnight close on April 11, let's look first at the bright side for impending Chesapeake Bay legislation.It won't take many paragraphs.Rushing toward approval is an obscure measure that would bypass the normal two-year wait for a crabbing license for anyone "pardoned after incarceration for a criminal offense."It's solely to help Kirk Bloodsworth, the Eastern Shore waterman mistakenly imprisoned for a 1984 murder in Baltimore County and pardoned last December by the governor.

On Wednesday evening, the Department of Natural Resources will hold a public hearing in Annapolis to discuss proposed changes for nontidal fishing regulations for 1994.The most noteworthy proposals would make changes in areas of some streams and rivers that are popular with trout fishermen and establish a 20-inch maximum size limit on walleye in the main stem of the Potomac River from Jan. 1 to April 15.The DNR proposes to establish a new put-and-take/catch-and-return area for trout on Owens Creek in Frederick County from Raven Rock Road downstream to Roddy Road.

President Clinton's new wetlands policy sets a familiar course of compromise, split the difference, end the gridlock, get win-win results: it balances economic interests with environmental needs and satisfies neither save-it nor pave-it advocates.The Clinton program, aimed at protecting the 270 million acres of essential bogs and marshes of America, marks a departure from the political confusion and paralysis of the Bush years and steers toward a sensible resolution of a complex issue.It declares as national policy "no net loss of wetlands," which have been disappearing at the rate of more than 200,000 acres a year, and pledges to increase that natural resource.