A new report from Union of Concerned Scientists pushes for wetland protections in a new Farm Bill. (Photo courtesy of USDA)

A new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists found wetlands in the Upper Midwest region are “in peril” due to recent legal challenges and a lack of state-level regulation. The report looks to a new farm bill as a vessel to protect wetlands.

The report, authored by Stacy Woods, the research director for the Food & Environment program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said industrial agriculture has inflicted “devastating damage” on wetlands across the country and that Iowa has more than 640,000 acres of wetland.

These wetlands, along with those in states across the Upper Midwest region, act as “natural barriers” to flooding. The report found this flood protection equates to nearly $23 billion in annual residential flood protection. Iowa’s wetlands alone could mitigate $477 million worth of flood damage to residential areas.

These estimates in the report are extrapolated from a 2022 study that found one acre of wetland was the equivalent to $745 in benefits from prevented flood damage.

The report alleges the Supreme Court decision in Sackett v. the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency “stripped” Clean Water Act protections from wetlands that are not connected to federally recognized bodies of water.

The new interpretation of the law, combined with the “absence of state-level wetland protections” in Iowa and other Upper Midwestern states makes wetlands “particularly vulnerable” to pollution or drainage, the report found.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in 2020, the Conservation Reserve Program had restored more than 3 million wetland acres across the country since the program started in 1985.  The same program has restored over 118,000 acres of wetland in Iowa and enrolled 66,000 acres as “buffer” in farmable wetlands, according to data collected by Environmental Working Group.

A hope for Farm Bill protections

The report looks at the Farm Bill as a place to implement wetland regulations to stop “large-scale commodity growers and corporate agribusiness interests” that “exploit wetlands for agricultural expansion.”

Farm bills in the past have established protections for wetlands, including the Conservation Reserve Program and the “swampbuster” provision that linked a landowner’s eligibility for USDA incentive programs to their preservation of wetlands.

An Iowa landowner recently sued the USDA over the provision and several groups including Iowa Environmental Council, Iowa Farmers Union, Dakota Rural Action and Food & Water Watch, sought to intervene in the lawsuit, which a federal judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa approved Tuesday.

The lawsuit alleges swampbusters created an unconstitutional condition for a farmer to receive USDA benefits, while the now-approved intervenors say without the law, there would be little to no protections for wetlands from farmers seeking to expand their croplands.

In addition to swampbuster, the report details other Farm Bill provisions that have protected wetlands, including conservation and wetland easement programs and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, or EQIP, which “enhance(s) wetlands” by promoting soil and water conservation.

The report calls for the next Farm Bill, which Congress has been unable to agree on and pass for more than two sessions now, to “enhance” existing conservation programs and implement new incentives that “foster soil and water health.”

These suggestions include: increasing the Conservation Reserve Program acres to 45 million acres; increasing funding for the Conservation Stewardship Program from $1 billion to $4 billion annually; expanding funding to historically underserved, disadvantaged and new farmers, and to link the Federal Crop Insurance Program to a farmer’s participation in conservation practices.

According to the report, investments from these recommendations constitute “only a fraction of the significant annual value wetlands deliver.”

“Integrating these initiatives into the next food and Farm Bill will fortify USDA programs that safeguard wetlands from industrial agriculture, ensuring these vital ecosystems thrive and continue to mitigate flooding, purify water, and support our communities and our climate,” the report said.

Groups across the country and political parties, including Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, and Wisconsin U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin have urged Congress to reauthorize the Farm Bill, rather than extend the 2018 bill for a second time.

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