A person in a red jacket, blue jeans, and black waders stands in a shallow, rocky riverbed and fly fishes next to a cliff dotted with boulders. A few trees and plants protrude from the rocks, and other greenery hugs part of the waters edge.

With rivers, lakes and wetlands in decline, the Biden administration sets new conservation goals

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In the United States, rivers, lakes, wetlands, and other freshwater resources that are invaluable to the nation’s ecological and economic health face serious threats. In response, the Biden administration last week announced The America the Beautiful Freshwater Challenge: a partnership to conserve and restore America’s rivers, lakes, streams and wetlands, with the goal of conserving 8 million acres of wetlands and protect, reconnect or restore 100,000. miles of rivers and streams by 2030.

This freshwater challenge highlights what many states, conservationists, public officials and organizations have already experienced firsthand: the nation’s rivers, lakes and wetlands are in danger. The administration’s announcement follows the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s “Wetlands Status and Trends Report,” which revealed that the continental United States has lost more than half of its wetlands in the last 150 years and that rates of loss increased by 50% between 2009 and 2019. and will accelerate if no action is taken.

Healthy rivers and streams, as well as freshwater and saltwater wetlands (including tidal forest marshes, salt marshes, peat bogs and seagrass beds) provide important benefits such as protecting shorelines from erosion, reducing the impact of flooding, protect and feed fish and other wildlife, and sequester climate-warming carbon. The main causes of decline in all these ecosystems have changed over time and are now primarily driven by development, dams and other barriers, pollution, agriculture and sea level rise and other effects of climate change.




The Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Delaware protects one of the largest remaining expanses of salt marshes in the mid-Atlantic.

Dennis Govoni




The Pew Charitable Trusts work with states, tribal nations, local communities, small business owners, scientists and outdoor enthusiasts to reverse these declines by protecting and restoring freshwater resources and wetlands, helping to conserve fresh water and sustain the local economies that depend on it. assets Examples of Pew’s collaborative work include:

  • Collaborate with local organizations and state agencies in Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington State to designate eligible rivers as Outstanding National Resource Waters, which protects water quality, biodiversity, and recreational opportunities that boost local economies. These efforts have collectively reconnected 1,800 river miles.
  • Working with federal and state governments, the Department of Defense, community members, and scientists to conserve 1 million acres of salt marsh from North Carolina to Florida. This vast habitat, threatened by rising sea levels, supports the region’s rich cultures and safeguards communities and more than a dozen military installations.
  • Work with landowners, small business owners, sportsmen and others to safeguard more than 450 miles of New Mexico’s Gila and San Francisco rivers and their tributaries as wild and scenic, the highest federal protection for rivers. These waterways form one of the largest non-reservoir watersheds in the continental U.S. A 2020 Pew-commissioned report found that outdoor recreation in the watershed supports nearly 4,000 jobs and generates approximately $427 million in annual spending.
  • Working with Oregon partners to ensure management plans for the state’s many estuaries address climate change threats. Pew also supported the state’s new commitment to ensure natural and working lands, including coastal wetlands, are protected, conserved and restored so they can continue to sequester carbon. In addition to capturing and storing carbon at rates comparable to old-growth forests, these habitats support culturally important and at-risk salmon species.
  • Help North Carolina and Oregon develop their first blue carbon inventories, which allow officials to better understand how much carbon these habitats sequester. Conserving “blue carbon” habitats—tidal forested wetlands, salt marshes, and seagrass beds—can help slow climate change by sequestering carbon.

Outsized benefits of wetlands and freshwater habitats

Although wetlands occupy less than 6% of the continental United States (wetlands can be freshwater, saltwater, or a combination) and exclusively freshwater ecosystems cover less than 1% of the Earth’s surface, the combined habitats provide substantial economic and environmental benefits. These include damage from natural disasters, such as floods, droughts and wildfires, and providing food, clean water, recreation and cultural resources for communities, including tribes.

Lakes, rivers and streams

All wetlands

Pew remains committed to working with the federal government, states, communities, tribes and others to protect and restore the lakes, rivers, streams, estuaries and wetlands that are so critical to human health, the prosperity of nation and the US resistance. communities

Jennifer Browning leads The Pew Charitable Trusts’ US Conservation Project.

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Image Source : www.pewtrusts.org

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