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This interview by Golf Digest with Robert Wood, the deputy director of the Wetlands Division, the EPA's representative in the Golf & the Environment Initiative, and an 18-handicap golfer.
Why do wetlands matter on golf courses?
Why shouldn't I be able to fill in the wetland on my golf-course project?
Wetlands are a vital part of any aquatic ecosystem. They provide habitat to a wide range of wildlife from fish, shellfish, all the way down to insect communities. Wetlands are the unique habitat for something like 30 percent of all endangered species, and 50 percent of endangered species spend at least part of their life cycle in wetlands. They're very ecologically rich.
To most people, endangered species are things like snow leopards and elephants, but there are more than 1,000 endangered species in the U.S. alone.
That's right. People are not thinking about salamanders or vegetation in a wetland. They're critically important as a habitat. And they're critically important as a filter: We build all this infrastructure to keep water clean, and wetlands provide very much that same kind of cleansing capacity in a natural way. And they provide a buffering capacity for storm events. We saw this very much with the Katrina and Rita storms in the Gulf of Mexico.
Is there a figure for the size of America's wetlands? A lot of the wetlands have disappeared.
The first statistical wetlands status-and-trends report in 1983
estimated the rate of wetland loss from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s
at 458,000 acres per year. Wetlands then were largely thought of as a
hindrance to development. In the 1991 report, which covered the
mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, we were still losing wetlands, but the rate
had declined to 290,000 acres a year. The third report, from '86 to
'97, indicated that the rate of loss was down to 58,500 acres per year.
Now the 2006 report, which covers 1998 to 2004, shows that the wetland
area actually increased by an average of 32,000 acres per year. This
was the first report to show that we were in a period of increasing
wetlands. There was, however, some issue with this report over how
wetlands were defined.
[Note: The report states that the total area of wetlands in the
U.S. in 2004 was 107.7 million acres. Wood goes on to explain that the
claim of wetlands growth has been contested. A New York Times story,
for instance, explains that over the study period, 523,500 acres of
true wetlands, swamps and tidal marshes were lost, but this was offset
in the report by gains of 715,300 acres of ponds, including man-made
ornamental ponds -- hardly a fair trade.]
To some golfers, wetlands and wild areas are just a nuisance, places
where you're going to lose your ball. They'd rather see the golf course
mowed from fence line to fence line. What do you say to them?
When you provide a bit of education, you can get a very different
answer. You can say, for example, that not mowing certain areas is
better for wildlife, better for water quality and allows native
vegetation to thrive and maybe prevents an invasive species from moving
in. It might change the look of the course a little bit and the way it
plays a little bit, maybe not. I'm a golfer, and to me what's
intrinsically attractive about the game is that you are essentially in
a natural setting. And it's the restrictions and unique features of
that natural setting that make a particular course challenging, one
that you like and remember and want to go back to. That's been a design
principle of golf courses from the beginning. It's part of the game.
One of the influential landscape architects of the last century was Ian
McHarg, who was a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He came
out with a book in 1969 called Design with Nature. The
audience was really urban planners and landscape architects, but it
applies to golf courses, too. It's the tradition of the game, and we're
rediscovering that tradition.
Web-based Geographic Information System for Water Management
IWRIS is a Web-based Geographic Information System application that allows users to access, integrate, query, and visualize multiple sets of data from diverse sources.Some of the databases currently accessible through IWRIS include DWR’s Water Data Library, California Data Exchange Center (CDEC), United States Geological Survey streamflow data, Local Groundwater Assistance Grants (AB303), and data from local agencies. The system will be expanded with additional data sets and functionality in the future.
Improve Water Data Management for Integrated Regional Water Management
DWR developed IWRIS to improve water data management and scientific understanding in support of Integrated Regional Water Management (IRWM).The California Water Plan Update 2005 identifies IRWM as a key initiative to ensure reliable water supplies through the year 2030.
The Department of Water Resources operates and maintains the State Water Project, provides dam safety and flood control and inspection services, assists local water districts in water management and water conservation planning, and plans for future statewide water needs.
RESOURCE:
Integrated Water Resources Information System
Department of Water Resources
Division of Planning and Local Assistance
901 P Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
www.iwris.water.ca.gov
