Wildlife Promise » Glenn Watkins

White House Continues to Shortchange Wetlands & Streams

Glenn Watkins — Tue, 14 May 2013 20:26:16 +0000

US Fish and Wildlife Service – Midwest Region/Flickr

This May marks the annual American Wetlands Month – a time each year to remember the importance of wetlands for storm and flood protection, water quality, and fish and wildlife habitat. It’s a time to revive wetland conservation efforts across the nation.

But as American Wetlands Month kicked off last week, another water-related anniversary quietly slipped by…but it wasn’t a happy one. May 2^nd marked the two-year anniversary since the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers submitted proposed clean water guidance that restores and clarifies Clean Water Act protections for America’s wetlands, lakes, and streams.

This widely supported guidance has been languishing at the White House in final form for over a year. Meanwhile, 20 million wetland acres and an estimated 2 million stream miles are at increased risk of pollution and destruction. Over half of America’s streams and rivers are in poor condition according to the latest National Rivers and Stream Assessment. And, for the first time since the 1980s, wetland losses are on the increase again.

Not exactly the most fitting celebration for the 23^rd anniversary of American Wetlands Month.

This unacceptable two year delay of action to restore crucial Clean Water Act protections to wetlands, lakes, and streams is costing our wildlife and our drinking water. The Obama administration should promptly finalize the clean water guidance and proceed with clean water rulemaking. Doing so is a crucial first-step toward restoring lasting protections to wetlands, lakes, and streams that are currently at risk.

Wetlands Under Attack

The American White Pelican is huge – it has a nine-foot wingspan, measures over five feet in length, and weighs about 16.4 pounds. Image: mikebaird/Flickr

In the wake of two Supreme Court decisions that weakened Clean Water Act protections, roughly 20 million wetland acres have been at particularly high risk of destruction. The millions of prairie pothole wetlands of the Dakotas, Western Minnesota, and Western Iowa are particularly valuable and particularly threatened. These small, shallow wetlands – marks made by glaciers over 10,000 years ago – fill with water in the spring, creating important habitat for 50 percent of North American migratory waterfowl along with many grassland, water, and shorebirds including herons, sandpipers, and even the American White Pelican.

But prairie potholes are not simply America’s “Duck Factory,” they also function as sponges and store water, reducing the risk of downstream flooding in the Red River as well as the Missouri and Mississippi River Basins. It is imperative to restore Clean Water Act protections and bolster agricultural wetland conservation measures to protect these valuable prairie wetlands.

The prairie pothole region is under particular threat from weakened Clean Water Act protections. Plains and Prairie Potholes Landscape Conservation/Flickr.

Let’s give our wetlands a better celebration – Act now to restore Clean Water Act protections

Our nation’s large, more iconic and recognizable rivers, lakes, and coastal waters depend on the health of the smaller streams and headwaters that sustain them. If the Clean Water Act doesn’t protect this network of small streams and wetlands, how can we hope to ensure the lasting health of our nation’s larger waterways?

It’s time for the administration to take a stand to restore protections for millions of wetland acres and stream miles. The very fate of our nation’s clean water and wildlife depends on it.

Black Bears and Wetlands and the Water Resources Development Act…Oh, My!

Glenn Watkins — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 16:55:23 +0000

Bears are made of the same dust as we, and breathe the same winds and drink of the same waters. – John Muir

USFWS/Southeast/Flickr

The Louisiana black bear is a threatened subspecies of the American black bear, and is found in wetland areas along the Mississippi River in the southern United States.

Their habitat faces serious threats from the United States Army Corps’ wasteful construction projects that eliminate and degrade wetland habitat crucial for the bears and other wildlife.

What’s a “WRDA” Water Resources Development Act?

The Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) is legislation that Congress uses to tell the Army Corps of Engineers what projects to build on our landscape. The Senate is expected to vote next week on a WRDA that could mean trouble for the black bear in several significant and serious ways. This WRDA includes provisions (Section 2032 & 2033) that would speed up Corps projects by shortening the amount of time available to complete a thorough environmental review of the projects. This undermines the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which was designed to evaluate the environmental impact of projects before constructing them. The provisions also make it more difficult for scientists, other agencies, and the public to influence the construction of Corps projects.

Black bear cubs in Wilkinson County, Mississippi. Photo by David Watts.

Environmental review of projects is essential to ensure that Corps projects benefit the nation rather than waste taxpayer dollars and harm our water resources and wildlife.

Environmental review protects wildlife

Having an adequate environmental review process saved the Louisiana black bear when their Mississippi wetland habitat was threatened by the Corps’ Yazoo Pumps project.

This unnecessary and environmentally destructive project would have damaged hundreds of thousands of acres of wetlands as well as two National Wildlife Refuges in the Mississippi River Delta. With the provisions in this WRDA, the project would have gone forward with less understanding of the environmental implications the construction would have had on the Louisiana black bear and other wildlife. Instead, the Environmental Protection Agency was able to step in and prohibit the project’s construction, saving these valuable wetlands and wildlife habitat.

Stand up for black bears and other wildlife!

Any bill with these provisions – provisions that would undermine years of conservation efforts and harm wildlife – must not move forward.

Tell your United States Senators to stop this WRDA from moving forward until it maintains strong environmental protections so we can protect threatened Louisiana black bears and other wildlife from harmful Army Corps of Engineers projects.

Protecting Florida’s Manatees from Harmful “Red Tide”

Glenn Watkins — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 18:59:49 +0000

Basking in the south Florida sun, a skimboarder turned to my friends on the beach and eloquently stated, “Bro, your girls are getting eaten by manatees.”

USFWS Headquarters/Flickr

While those who know anything about manatees would know we weren’t in any danger of actually getting devoured, I am ashamed to admit that during my last encounter with a sea cow I was – for lack of a better phrase – totally freaking out.

I’m a native Floridian and have lived most of my life just a few steps from the Gulf of Mexico in the quiet paradise of downtown Naples, Florida. I spent every possible moment outdoors; so, I should have been prepared to identify what I saw out of the corner of my eye while swimming with my sister offshore, right?

Apparently not.

As soon as I glimpsed the two massive, amorphous gray blobs swimming towards me, my already active imagination flipped into overdrive and bypassed the obvious conclusion that the shapes were nothing but two whiskery manatees.

Naturally, I screamed at the top of my lungs and swam as fast as possible towards the shore, leaving my sister to the “mercy” of the strange, shadowy figures eight feet away. After several seconds of panicked swimming, I began to laugh hysterically, realizing the absurdity of my mistaken conclusion that these creatures were out there to eat me. I then turned around to enjoy the incredible sight.

In High Tide or Low Tide…But Not Red Tide

Though this interaction paints me in a rather embarrassing light, it was an extraordinary experience to have two peaceful manatees happen upon us so naturally.

Manatee populations have been suffering for decades due to human activities – we flock to coastal areas and replace natural shoreline environments with concrete developments – bringing the animals into contact with boat propellers and contributing to dramatic habitat destruction. While the mammal is currently listed as endangered, years of conservation efforts have improved manatee populations though grave threats still remain.

USFWS Endangered Species/Flickr

Most recently, a record number of manatees have been killed along the Gulf coast of Florida this year as a result of a harmful algal bloom (HAB) off the coast, stretching as far south as my hometown.

HABs can result when excess nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen are added to aquatic systems, essentially fertilizing the algae and causing populations to increase exponentially. The bloom currently impacting these manatees is caused by a type of phytoplankton called Karenia brevis that produces toxins detrimental to both humans and marine wildlife. Manatees in Florida’s warm waters typically feast on sea grass, so when the phytoplankton settles on marine plants, the animals can ingest the toxins. The manatees then lose coordination and cannot surface to breathe.

This particular bloom has been referred to as red tide and it has already killed more than 240 manatees this year. This alarming figure already surpasses the previous record for algae-related manatee deaths in a calendar year, when 151 manatees died in 1996.

Protect the Gulf’s Wildlife

A view of the Gulf from my hometown beach. NWF photo by Glenn Watkins

Though there is some disagreement over whether coastal nutrient runoff causes K. brevis blooms to originate, there is evidence showing that, once the bloom moves closer to shore, nutrient runoff from coastal areas impacts the bloom’s duration, frequency, intensity, and size.

In Florida, one way to improve water quality in Gulf waters is by restoring America’s Everglades, particularly focusing on the Caloosahatchee River (C-43 Basin Storage Resorvoir) project and the elevation of Tamiami Trail. These two projects will improve the quality and quantity of freshwater flows into the Gulf of Mexico, reducing the amount of nutrient pollution entering coastal environments.

These recent manatee deaths highlight just how complex and interconnected water systems are, reminding us that our actions have incredibly far-reaching consequences. For the sake of Florida’s manatees and other wildlife, we need to restore the Gulf ecosystem.

Stop the New Madrid Levee to Protect Mississippi River Wildlife!

Glenn Watkins — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 16:14:09 +0000

The endangered interior least tern can be spotted along the Mississippi River in the New Madrid Floodway. (USFWS Endangered Species/Flickr)

Meet the endangered interior least tern. These quirky, darting birds migrate from North America to Central and South America, and rely on areas along the Missouri, Ohio, Red, Rio Grande, and Mississippi river systems for breeding habitat. One particular spot they like to frequent is a wetland environment along the Mississippi River, where bald eagles nest, fish spawn and grow up, and the rare swamp rabbit can be spotted – the New Madrid Floodway.

1,600 Miles of Levees

The New Madrid Floodway is one of only four federally designated flood zones along the Mississippi River. The Floodway is walled off from the Mississippi River by levees, except for a quarter-mile gap at the bottom of the Floodway. This gap is precious. It is the only place in Missouri where the River can still reach its floodplain, and a rare gap in the nearly impregnable 1,600 miles of levees we’ve built on the banks of the lower Mississippi River from St. Louis all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. This rare and important river-floodplain connection sustains wetlands that filter water pollution, stores floodwaters to protect nearby river towns from flooding, and provides vital habitat for a large number of rare and endangered species like the interior least tern and the swamp rabbit.

But this precious and rare floodplain is in danger.

The rare swamp rabbit is found within the New Madrid Floodway. Its dense fur acts to repel water, making it possible for the rabbit to swim across bodies of water to find food or escape predators. The rabbit gained some fame after a 1979 incident with Jimmy Carter, when he saw one swimming toward his boat. (Missouri Department of Conservation)

A Scheme to Sever the Connection

The Army Corps of Engineers is pushing the St. Johns/New Madrid Levee Project forward, a 60-year-old scheme to construct a 60-foot tall levee to plug this important gap. The proposed New Madrid Levee would sever this last remaining connection between the Mississippi and its Missouri floodplain in order to protect agricultural interests within the floodway.

But the project will have a devastating effect on the environment and the fish and wildlife that rely on the floodplain. The project will also put river communities at increased risk of flooding.

The New Madrid Levee would wall off some 80,000 acres of regularly inundated floodplain from the river, including approximately 50,000 acres of wetlands. This floodplain shelters Mississippi River fish as they spawn and raise their young in its warm, calm waters, protecting them from the river’s colder, higher velocity waters.

Protect the River’s Wildlife

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the project “will result in significant losses of regionally and nationally important fish and wildlife resources which cannot be adequately mitigated.”

In other words, the environmental damage is so extensive that the Corps of Engineers cannot possibly replace the fish and wildlife habitat and the wetlands and floodplain areas it is destroying, which is required as a matter of law.

A Corps of Engineers Independent Review Panel for this project even stated that the “loss of this last remaining connection and its ecosystem functioning would be the ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’ in terms of the total cumulative impact” to the natural ecosystem.

It’s time to put an end to this destructive project once and for all.

Spread the Word

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Help spread the word about protecting the swamp rabbits, least terns, and fish that depend on the last remaining connection between the Mississippi River and it’s Missouri Floodplain.

If you are a resident of Missouri, send a message urging Governor Nixon to stop the New Madrid Floodway levee.

How the Clean Water Act Protects the River of Grass

Glenn Watkins — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 23:21:47 +0000

“The miracle of light pours over the green and brown expanse of saw grass and of water, shining and slow-moving below, the grass and water that is the meaning and the central fact of the Everglades of Florida. It is a river of grass.” – Marjory Stoneman Douglas

Everglades (Fifth World Art/Flickr)

America’s Everglades are unlike any other place on earth. A first glance at the general “muck” of the Everglades would reveal grinning alligators lazing in the sun, enormous banana spiders weaving webs directly overhead, and swarming mosquitoes drumming in your ears: a swampy vision summed up in early documentation of the region as a place where a man “would not immigrate…not from hell itself.” Now, while some might still feel that way about South Florida—and I certainly don’t—the fact that the beauty of the Everglades is something that isn’t easily tangible is just part of what makes it so unique. I mean, how amazing is it that it’s the only place on Earth where the American alligator and American crocodile coexist with each other?

Water is the lifeblood of America’s Everglades, the unifying factor that connects the once-vast ecosystem from its headwaters at the Kissimmee River to the most southern tip of Florida and Florida Bay. Sequestered within the tip of South Florida is the Everglades National Park, the last remaining piece of the original Everglades. This ecosystem depends on a constant, slow supply of water in order to function. Since the park is located at the bottom of its watershed, we must protect the water in order to protect the park.

And the Everglades is not a place that South Florida can afford to lose!

My Home, My Everglades

When I saw the “swamp” for the first time, I was in fourth grade and my parents took my family to Big Cypress. I remember at first feeling off put by the decidedly swampy smell, but then being quickly distracted by the bright green sprigs on the cypress trees, decorated by Spanish moss, and by the promise of finding the hidden alligators that were buried among a mask of water plants. I couldn’t believe that this water connected us to points as far away as Miami, the Keys, and Lake Okeechobee.

Learning just how interconnected Florida is with water and the Everglades still blows my mind. My jaw dropped when I learned that I was among the one in every three Floridians who rely on the Everglades ecosystem to provide their water supply. The continued existence of South Florida as we know it all depends on clean water.

The Clean Water Act Protects the Everglades

Over the past 40 years, the Clean Water Act has been instrumental in protecting the health of Florida waters and the Everglades. The Act has helped preserve the tapestry of headwaters, small streams, and wetlands that play an integral role in providing links among the “river of grass” that feeds into the Everglades and on to Florida Bay. Nevertheless, since the early 1900s, much of the Everglades has been neatly partitioned by canals, dams, roadways, and agricultural areas, resulting in the funneling of a large quantity of nutrient pollution to Florida’s canals and coastal waters before it even has a chance to flow through the Everglades. The remaining small streams and wetlands of the Everglades watershed are more important than ever for holding and filtering these pollutants, yet many of them are now at increased risk of losing Clean Water Act protections in the wake of recent court decisions.

In order to reduce the amount of nutrient pollution entering the Everglades and flowing to coastal waters, strong Clean Water Act protections need to be in place.

A Heron flying through the Everglades (milan.boers/Flickr)

There is overwhelming public support for strengthening Clean Water Act guidelines, support that transcends political party affiliations. A recent poll commissioned by the National Wildlife Federation found that 79% of hunters and anglers polled favor restoring Clean Water Act protections to our wetlands and waterways.

Show us why you love clean water! If you care about clean water and would like future generations to have fishable, swimmable and drinkable waters, take action and help restore clean water today!