today Wetlands curiously are the only ecosystem that is explicitly protected by law in the United States how does that come about from paying cash to people to destroy Wetlands to protection well maybe I'm being a little bit cynical but self-interest is a wonderful thing back in the earlier part of the 20th century uh legislators Senators congressman were basically well off land-owning people who lived in the areas that they represented rather than the unemployed actors and the like that we have today and when legislative sessions were over those people left Washington and went home to their where they expected to indulge in the Past Times of evil hunting fishing shooting stuff like that and pretty soon they began to realize that you can't go fishing if all the creeks have been turned into drainage ditches and you can't shoot duck another wildfowl on your parts if the bonds have been drained and turned into cornfields as I say self-interest is a wonderful thing the went back to Congress and hey enough is enough they ended the subsidy law and instead passed the new law that said basically no more destruction of website but you can't actually do that if you said literally no more destruction of wetlands you couldn't build a bridge across a Creek development would grind to a total hole so there had to be a lot more detail it was a very well crafted look but the goal they said was no net loss what the law said was that if you plan to destroy a wetland you become responsible for protecting preserving purchasing risk renovating creating a wetland somewhere else to make up for it is called mitigation mitigation making up for doing something bad by doing something good across the United States as a whole mitigation is required at one to one meaning that if you destroy an acre of wetland you become responsible for an acre of wetland so in California where I remember we are over 90 percent destruction of our Wetlands mitigation is actually required at four to one you're going to destroy one acre of wetland you become responsible for four because it can attempt to actually build our Capital back up too little too late but okay who enforces this law it's a federal law we needed a federal agency so who do you think it is EPA part of the interior you know Homeland Security no you'll never guess I don't know the answer it is the U.S Army Corps of Engineers if you need a section 404 permit to damage or destroy a wetland you go to the U.S Army Corps of Engineers huh what have they got to do with it well I may have mentioned this before anything that seems weird all you have to do is look back into history to find the time and place but it wasn't weird and actually made sense and for this one we go all the way back to the Civil War during the Civil War U.S army the army of the North their Corps of Engineers had a major task which was to ensure that the warships of the North could navigate the rivers and beat up the South without the embarrassment of running on descent Banks becoming sitting targets after the Civil War was over that responsibility shifted subtly after the war was over we decided on recon reconstruction when the Warring States were supposed to become friendly and work with one another the Corps of Engineers mandate became to maintain the navigability of the nation's waterways for the benefits of interstate commerce now you guys looking around you in Southern California May wonder what a river has to do with with Commerce Interstate or otherwise all you see here these empty concrete Channels with a dribble of polluted water running down the bottom but go back east where it rains you're around and rivers are full of water you're a wrap and the bigger rivers are eminently African if you hang out by the Mississippi River for a day or so probably several convoys or barges will go by 20 or 30 barges all tied together and pulled Along by one tokens crew of two or three guys on that Tugboat are transporting all that cargo as much as an entire Factory it's slow it is not a technique to use for perishable Goods or anywhere time but for transporting large amounts of raw material and durable products deeply over long distances method and its in use today so the US Army Corps of Engineers is the federal body that is in charge of waterways they prepare the charts they put the buoys in to Mark the dangerous spots they dredge they dig out sand banks so the flow is uninterrupted they've also straightened out Rivers removed the bends built dams to maintain water supply that all kinds of ecological damage but that's their mission now I didn't take the court too long to realize that if Farmer John here is dumping silta to the Little Creek flowing across his land and the creek drains into a larger River pretty soon there's going to be a sandbank the larger River that's going to cost the core an expensive tragic so they took control in addition to the navigable rivers to all tributaries Waters flowing into those navigable Rivers and this control extended ultimately to all Quote Waters of the United States which includes Rivers streams creeks swamp smashes wetlands today we are just as possibly more concerned with the ecological health of our waterways pollution became a very important aspect in the 1960s for example and so today the U.S Army Corps Engineers doesn't just worry about navigability they're in charge of the ecological health of our nation's Waters a couple of years ago I got to this point in the class and suddenly we were in class then of course suddenly there was a loud aha from the back of the room I asked the older gentleman to explain he said yeah I work in the careers center for the college and I've always wondered why I keep getting these flies from the US Army Corps of Engineers hiring botanists and zoologists and entomologists fish experts all these kind of people I thought what's this got to do with the US Army and suddenly you just the answer the US Army Corps of Engineers employs a huge tea of Civilian scientists in order to fulfill this requirement of looking after the ecological health of our nation's waterways if you're a developer and you're going to build over an acre of wetland or tenac as a wetland you have to actually go out and buy Wetland somewhere else so you can properly preserve protect so what about small impacts let's say you have a home it's set back a bit from the highway there's a little creek almost a drain almost a ditch running alongside the highway you want to build a little wooden bridge just enough so you can get your car from the highway up to the front of your home you technically are going to be responsible for damage too about six square feet of wetland the one foot wide and your Bridge covers quite enough but the car across do you have to go out as a homeowner and purchase six square feet of wetter somewhere no we don't sell that in units of 6 6 so there's a standard permit procedure for this you fill in the application form you pay money there's a value per square foot and that money goes into a fund along with similar contributions from innumerable other people once that pot of money is big enough to do something meaningful for wetland protection preservation that's what it's used for that's all it can be used for and so it's allowed to be used for by law so yeah we've got the big impacts and the small impacts covered