Wetlands, status and trends in the conterminous United States mid-1970's to mid-1980's

This report covers the mid-1970's to the mid-1980's, a period in which Federal, State, and local government programs and policies began to affect wetland use and conversion. For this reason, there has been intense interest by the scientific and governmental communities in these updated wetlands statistics (Dahl and Pywell 1989). Although the data contained in this report generally predates more recent wetlands legislation (e.g., Food Security Act, North American Wetlands Conservation Act), they provide information that can help to assess the effectiveness of public policies and programs that have been intended to reduce the loss of the nation's remaining wetlands.