This week's St. Pete Times editorial pick is a collection of articles titled,
Vanishing Wetlands.
The story starts in the early 70's with the creation of NWI (National Wetlands Inventory) and their duty to map our nation's wetland resources. Using the historical approach of aerial photography and mylar transfer they completed their initial mapping. Which was to be a
baseline for the Bush I mandate of "no net loss" when dealing with wetland mitigation. However, to date, the NWI has only updated 2 of Florida's 67 counties' maps, in regards to existing wetlands. Enter the USACE (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers), they are tasked to do the permit review of wetland mitigation, yet are not tasked to actually maintain or update the existing wetland maps. Unfortunately politicians of both sides grease the review process to speed constiuents' permits. Which usually are submitted with only the petitioners review of the wetland actually taking place. Armed with rudimentary remote sensing skills and a few landsat satellite imagery, the St. Pete Times has come up with a conservative net loss of 84,000 acres of wetlands throughout the last 15 years in Florida.
Blue arrows point to loss of wetland habitat
Additionally, this week
NASA's Earth Observatory posted an article about the changing climate of Florida through the loss of its wetlands. The 'Hot Water Bottle' effect that Florida's wetlands used to have (due to specific heat of water) has diminished and allowed for significant encroachment of cold temperatures into the citrus belt (The image below shows where colder temperatures are persisting for longer durations).
This problem will only become more acute as Florida's census predictions show that more wetland loss will come due to increasing population. The next time, winter prices for citrus products spike thank your local (D or R) politician for fast tracking that Wal-mart permit.