rule<\/a>\u00a0to clarify which types of water have Clean Water Act protection, which will be helpful to Florida wetlands, streams and freshwater springs, according to Jan Goldman-Carter, senior manager of wetlands and water resources for the National Wildlife Federation.<\/p>\n“There will be no question that those waters are covered by the Clean Water Act,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd that in turn helps bolster the state-level protections for those waters, because the federal and state protections for water quality are closely intertwined.”<\/p>\n
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the rate of wetlands loss accelerated by 140 percent from 2004 to 2009, the years immediately following the Supreme Court rulings.<\/p>\n
A public comment period is expected to begin in a few weeks on the proposed rule.<\/p>\n
Manley Fuller, president and CEO of the Florida Wildlife Federation, said the 2001 and 2006 Supreme Court decisions have confused and limited the scope of the Clean Water Act \u2013 making it much more difficult to maintain and restore the state’s streams, headwaters and freshwater wetlands.<\/p>\n
“Wetlands are extremely important to fish and wildlife and outdoor recreation,\u201d he stressed. \u201cSo we think that this rule, when implemented, will help clarify what is a wetland and what is not a wetland.”<\/p>\n
There are more than 50,000 miles of rivers and streams in Florida, in addition to many high-quality springs that circulate millions of gallons of pure water daily.<\/p>\n
According to the Outdoor Industry Association, outdoor recreation generates $38 billion annually and more than half of the state’s residents participate in some outdoor activity each year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by: Stephanie Carroll Carson, Public News Service-FL For more than a decade, 20 million wetland acres and 2 million miles of streams \u2013 including many in Florida \u2013 were left… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30004"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30004\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/wetland-300x200.jpg\" "\\"wetland\\"")
For more than a decade, 20 million wetland acres and 2 million miles of streams \u2013 including many in Florida \u2013 were left unprotected, despite the federal Clean Water Act.<\/p>\n