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home the archives faculty services arts & science departments college of arts & science mu campus |
New wetland regulations inadequate; fuel guiltless destruction
"Although many land developers want to do the right thing, they are misled to believe that mitigation practices will make it right or restore the wetland to its natural state, but that’s not the case," said Semlitsch, an expert in wetland ecology and professor of Biological Sciences. "We as biologists have done a disservice to efforts to conserve wetlands by suggesting that wetlands can be mitigated in the first place. Our first priority should be to preserve them in their natural state.
Semlitsch is an expert in wetland ecology and amphibian conservation biology, and an advocate for wetland protection. He earned his doctoral degree in zoology from the University of Georgia in 1984 and has been on the faculty at MU since 1993. Semlitsch is a member of the Ecological Society of America, the Society for Conservation Biology and the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists. For more than 20 years, his research has focused on understanding basic ecological processes in both natural and disturbed populations of amphibians, including population dynamics, adaptation to temporary wetlands and the maintenance of biodiversity. 2002 Additional links:Semlitsch lab |
| copyright © 2000 The Curators of the University of Missouri Last update: 29-Sep-2005 contact the project: Web information |
The week of January 13, 2002, the Army Corps of Engineers announced a change in wetland development regulations, eliminating acre-for-acre restoration requirements in favor of a less stringent requirement of "no net loss" of wetlands. According to University of Missouri-Columbia researcher 
"Current mitigation practices are inadequate for restoring all biologically important components of wetlands. Such procedures do restore some components of natural wetlands, but seldom do they restore the natural processes that make them unique and valuable habitats for wildlife. Without functions such as a natural hydrology or connectivity to other wetlands, they are, at best, poor habitat for many wildlife species. We must develop better wetland mitigation practices so that when it is truly necessary, we can do it effectively and restore the ecosystem functions, too."