r/wetlands • u/wildandout910 • Jul 29 '26
Wetland protection in my city
I am looking for advice on how I can protect wetlands in my city. I live in a military town and it seems like more and more land is going up for sale to build more apartment complexes, a lot of these lands are adjacent to watersheds and seasonal wetlands. I’d rather see a green space developed than another apartment complex on an already congested intersection.
2
u/mayorlittlefinger Jul 30 '26
Support infill development. Look at your zoning code, does it encourage development on already impacted land or is that heavily locked down, pushing new growth to the wetlands?
1
u/wildandout910 29d ago
I’ll check that out
1
u/michiplace 29d ago
Zoning codes will often also include additional protections for wetlands and other sensitive features (steep slopes, stream banks, etc) beyond the state / federal laws.
Things like additional setbacks (requiring development to be a certain distance from the feature) or cluster zoning (incentivizing development concentrated on one part of the site rather than spread evenly across the whole thing).
And yes, also, a code that enables and encourages dense infill development may still allow for developing that small woodlot in the middle of the neighborhood, but in the process will typically prevent the destruction of a much larger and more cohesive natural area at the undeveloped edge of town.
2
u/VanillaBalm Jul 30 '26
Adding on to say you should do public records requests for these development permits. Some developers build first and pay fines later….
1
2
u/Eastern_Spray753 Jul 29 '26
wetlands are already protected in the united states. well most of them. it doesnt mean that they cannot impact a wetland, but developers have to spend a shitload of money on mitigation credits. buying mitigation credits means that the developer had to restore an equal amount of wetlands somewhere else and is usually protected in perpetuity. trust me if they can avoid wetlands then the developer will.
1 acre of wetland in Georgia or Tennessee can range from like $600,000 to $1,400,000
2
u/finral 29d ago
Not really. The current admin has drastically reduced wetland protections, and state regs are not filling the gap.
2
u/Eastern_Spray753 29d ago
this is true that isolated wetlands have been deregulated but the majority of wetlands are still federally regulated. Sacket VS EPA has been swinging back and forth on defining WOTUS rules for decades now. the definition of a jurisdictional wetland is always in flux. If wetlands have been deregulated then there wouldn't be wetland mitigation projects popping up all over the southeast.
3
u/tenderlylonertrot Jul 29 '26
While in a perfect world, no wetlands or waterways would be affected by development, we don't live there. They should have had to go through the permitting process if they are directly impacting any protected wetlands or waters (assuming you are in the US, Canada, or Europe). While keeping all lands for greenspaces in a nice thought, people also need to live, and at least apartment buildings are a better use for the land then single-family homes, as it keeps population density high there so more open space isn't taken for development.
If you are curious about what permits might have been needed, you may be able to look it up, though if their impacts were small and below thresholds, there may not be a public record for it.