Join us in advocating for wetland protections

Wetlands are some of Earth’s most vital ecosystems. They clean our water, support recreational industries and are home to 40% of the world’s species and 75% of commercially harvested fish and shellfish species in the United States. Moreover, wetlands are pivotal in protecting communities from flooding, our nation’s costliest natural hazard, because they act as natural sponges that slow and absorb floodwaters, reducing downstream flood damages. With one acre of wetlands storing as much as 1.5 million gallons of flood water, continued loss of wetlands and development in high-risk areas will exacerbate the impacts of increasing climate-driven storms and put more communities at risk of flooding.

Wetlands are at serious risk. What’s happening?

The U.S. government once recognized that wetlands connected to federal waterways, including those connected below the surface, should be protected under the Clean Water Act. But in 2023, a majority opinion by the Supreme Court drastically scaled back those federal protections in an opinion now stating that wetlands must have “a continuous surface connection” to federal waters. This language is not grounded in science and establishes tremendous uncertainty as to how this will be interpreted in the long term. 

An analysis from EDF estimates that between 17-90 million acres of wetlands could now be threatened (for reference, California is 100 million acres in size). The Supreme Court’s decision is compounded by the fact that many states have few or no state protections, with 24 states currently relying entirely on the federal wetlands protections determined by the Clean Water Act. In short, this means many of these wetlands may have no protection at all.