State Reports                                                             

* Wetland Resources of Illinois: An Analysis and Atlas, Illinois Natural History Survey, 607 E. Peabody Drive, Champaign 61820; (217) 333-6880 (Special Publication 15, July 1994), 88 pp.

Wetlands at one time comprised almost one-fourth of the land in this state. By the mid-1980s only 10 percent of those wetlands still existed; the rest have been primarily converted to agricultural purposes and to a lesser extent have been affected by population growth.

The brief 15-page opening section of this report deals with the problem of defining wetlands, explains the methods and procedures for the inventory and summarizes the results. These results show, for instance, that of nearly 36 million acres of surface area in Illinois, 4.9 percent represent surface water; of this, 3.5 percent, (or 1.25 million acres) are wetlands and 1.4 percent (or about a half million acres) are deepwater habitat. The rest of the report consists of maps as well as tables of data showing the distribution of wetlands and deepwater habitats by county.

* The Amnesty Answer: Illinois Environmental Amnesty Program, Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, 2200 Churchill Rd., Springfield 62794 or Department of Commerce and Community Affairs, 620 E. Adams, Springfield 62701 (February 1995), 14 pp.

The program outlined in this document is intended to assist any of the 300,000 small businesses in this state that may not be in compliance with environmental regulations and may therefore be subject to fines of up to $50,000 per violation.

The report contains 11 recommendations for implementing such a program, along with an explanation for each. One recommendation is that businesses employing the equivalent of 200 or fewer full-time employees should be eligible; another is that the program should run for one year, from August 1995 through July 1996. It also recommends that the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Commerce and Community Affairs form a partnership with various business organizations to implement the program.