Summary: At least 36 federal agencies, to varying degrees, conducted wetlands-related activities during fiscal years 1990 through 1997. These activities included acquiring, regulating, restoring, enhancing, mapping, inventorying, delineating, and conducting research relating to wetlands. Six agencies--the Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency and the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Department of Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service, the Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Environmental Protection Agency--were the primary agencies involved in and responsible for implementing wetlands-related programs. These six agencies accounted for more than 70 percent of the funding and 65 percent of the staffing associated each year with such activities. The consistency and reliability of wetlands acreage data reported by the federal agencies are questionable. Although resource inventories maintained by the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Natural Resources Conservation Service have both reported that the rate of wetlands loss has declined, the inventories' estimates are not completely consistent. Consequently, a single set of wetlands acreage numbers that could be used to evaluate the progress made in achieving the goal of "no net loss" of the nation's remaining wetlands is unavailable. In addition, officials from each of the agencies have questioned the estimates made by the other, and officials from the Environmental Protection Agency have expressed concern about the estimates of both inventories.
