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Meet The Environmental Odd
by Do you agree that there is a little bit of Felix and Oscar in all of us? I used to think not, when I first began to work with environmentalists and land developers. These two groups were as different as night and day, but times are changing. Land developers and environmentalists must learn to live together just as Felix Unger and Oscar Madison in the television show, Odd Couple, learned to, and gain mutual respect for each other's points of view. It has been said that the 1990s is the decade for the environment. If this holds true, it will not make many land developers happy. Ultimately, we will make many decisions that could effect our environment in either a positive or negative way. Our challenge is to have a plan and be prepared for what lies ahead. In the 1980s, most of us had a choice on such issues as recycling our solid waste or whether or not we would water our lawns or wash our cars on a given day. Environmental issues came to us at a slow pace allowing most of us time to react and implement change. This is no longer the case in the'90s. Today some of our citizenry have taken personal steps to do what they can to help improve the environment. Many individuals are trying to impose their beliefs on the rest of us. These activists want action fast and expect answers to their questions on the issue even faster. Soon we will be forced to deal with many new environmental issues. The day of reckoning is on the horizon for most of us, and for others it has already arrived. Or, is it the day of opportunity? The opportunity of the '90s that I would like to address is this country's wetland regulatory policy or the lack of one. Most Americans cannot relate to the wetland issue because they do not understand it. They should not feel embarrassed. Most of the politicians in office do not know what a wetland is, yet alone how or why the development of them should be regulated. I believe that those of us who understand the wetland issue should continue to get involved in the debate over what this country's wetland policy should be. An effort should be put forth to educate all citizens to the importance of wetlands and the effect these areas have on the quality of life today and in the future. An army of educated wetland advocates needs to be created from within the professional park and recreation ranks and from our local constituencies. Only through a grassroots community education and awareness program about the value of wetlands can this army truly win the war against the indiscriminate destruction of wetland resources. Battle lines are being drawn all across the country over the rights of property owners to do with their land as they wish so long as their actions pose no threat to the general public health and well-being. Who determines whether or not someone's actions pose a threat to public health? The answer to this question is, the politicians, and we elect them. The day the politicians get the message from their constituency, they will take the appropriate action. Unfortunately the developer's message is being heard louder and clearer than the environmentalists' cry for help. Land owners are crying foul. They are charging that wetland regulations are another form of taking without compensating. This claim is made whenever landowners are against further regulations that restrict the use of their land in order to maximize its economic value. Therefore, what can we do to help educate everyone as to the importance wetlands play in man's efforts to live harmoniously with his environment? How do we convince the general public that the indiscriminate destruction of this nation's wetlands poses
a serious threat to public health and safety?
It is very difficult to place a universally accepted value on benefits derived from wetlands other than storm water storage. Hopefully the true economic benefit of preserving most of the remaining wetlands will be learned before it is too late. Unfortunately most environmental lessons are learned from the experience of cleaning up past mistakes. What do you think the cost would be to clean up our drinking water resources once they have become unfit for human consumption? How much money does federal, state and local governments spend annually on flood damage and prevention projects? Could this use of our ever shrinking tax dollar be saved if our wetlands were still in existence? Finally, what cost or value can be placed on every plant and animal that faces extinction? This gene pool will be lost forever if we fail to regulate those activities which negatively impact on our survival. The true challenge and opportunity that faces all of us who wish to improve the local environment and quality of life are providing public education and awareness of the value of wetlands. There is an old Chinese proverb that's appropriate: "If you are thinking one year ahead, you plant rice. If you are thinking 10 years ahead, you plant trees. If you are thinking 100 years ahead, you educate people." A local environmentalist once said that our country lost touch with its environment and Mother Nature with the invention of indoor plumbing and the garbage disposal. We have become a society that believes that if you flush it down the drain or put it in the garbage can at the curb, that the problem no longer exists. Fortunately we have all learned that this is not the case. Unfortunately, the wetland issue does not affect our home environment as intimately, and it is therefore more difficult to put our constituency in personal contact with the subject. The contact that needs to be made between is that wetlands keep the floodwaters out of their basements. The problem is that most people cannot make the connection between wetlands and flood plain and the water in their basement. Most people would blame their city for having undersized storm sewers. The Wheaton Park District suggests that it is time for action. Our District began to form a coalition of wetland advocates to find a way to promote the value of wetlands at the local level. This coalition has decided not to wait for the final outcome of the federal wetland debate. They are taking the battle into our own backyard by bringing the wetland issue to where people can actually see, touch, smell and enjoy the value of wetlands. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the experience of walking through the picture ought to be priceless. I am suggesting that everyone make an attempt at re-creating a small wetland in one or more of our parks to serve as an outdoor classroom to teach the wetland story. Why is this important? The Wheaton Park District preserved a 130-acre piece of land. This land, predominately flood plain, links three parks, one school, the county fairgrounds, the county government center and one state and national trail. This preservation and acquisition story has blossomed beyond expectations. The Wheaton Park District Story Ten years ago, the Wheaton Park District began to acquire this land based on master plan recommendations. This acquisition was to provide valuable linkages for trail related activities, wildlife habitat, preservation of native flora and fauna, preservation of the existing flood plain, and to provide additional storm water storage opportunities. Some may think most of these objectives go beyond the local park and recreation agency mandate and have regional significance. The District was successful in selling this message to county, state and federal agencies and, to date, received approximately $1.8 million for the total $2.1 million needed to complete the initial acquisition. The primary selling point was based on the regional economic value of preserving the existing and potential storm water storage capacity of the land. All of the other benefits
derived from this wetland acquisition were thought to be intangible by most of the decision makers and of no significance to the final decision to buy the land. Their final decision to participate in our land acquisition proposal was based on one point — flooding. All of DuPage County had suffered many recent floods. The issue of flooding and the costs to provide the required storm water storage was a very costly solution to the problem. It was also thought not to be a viable option to the taxpayers. The DuPage County Board was open to finding other alternatives. This dilemma became the window of opportunity for the Park District. About the time that the Park District's land acquisition program was beginning to receive considerable publicity, Park District officials were approached by a developer who was trying to locate a site to mitigate an EPA enforcement case for illegal filling of a wetland. Initially, the Park District was successful in working with the Army Corps of Engineers and this local developer on this particular wetland mitigation problem. These discussions led us to further meetings with the DuPage County Environmental Concerns Committee. They were in the process of reworking the County's storm water ordinance and were including a wetland regulatory section in the new ordinance. The County was also working with the Corps of Engineers to take over jurisdiction of all regulated wetlands, 3 acres or less, as part of this new ordinance. This is where the Park District came in. The County was already under a lot of pressure to try to find a way to mitigate the many small low quality wetland sites that dot a majority of DuPage County's landscape. Most of these wetlands are so degraded that they have no major environmental significance in their current scattered existence. These sites, if left in their current state, would slowly die and become nothing more than a public nuisance. Many of these sites give wetlands a bad name and lead the public to believe that wetlands are nothing more than mosquito infested swamps. These reasons led the Wheaton Park District to work with the Army Corps of Engineers and DuPage County to form our state's first wetland mitigation banking project on public lands. The Park District and DuPage County have signed an intergovernmental agreement to jointly design, construct and maintain one large recreated wetland ecosystem. The County has put up $250,000 to pay for the research and site master plan. This study will develop all construction cost estimates and include ongoing costs for maintenance of the area as a viable wetland resource. How does the wetland banking concept work, and how are developers charged who wish to participate? As with most contracts, there are at least two parties which possess something of value that the other party wishes to utilize for their gain. In this case the Park District owned the land and wished to re-create wetlands or enhance existing wetlands and increase storm water storage. The other party, the land developers, had the money to fund the project and a need to meet their wetland mitigation requirements. Many environmentalists have challenged this concept saying it allows and encourages the indiscriminate filling and destruction of existing wetlands and that no one will be able to
naturally. The fact of the matter is that land developers are going to eventually get the necessary permit to fill these wetlands. It may take a long time and cost the developer a lot of money but eventually these wetlands will be lost. The other major point is that these wetlands are less than 3 acres in size, most less than 1 acre, and have been so degraded that they are nothing more than cattail monocultures that are slowly being filled in and dying to the point of becoming non-functional. The DuPage County Storm Water Ordinance, as per the Corps of Engineers' wetland criteria, will mandate that certain high quality wetlands not be mitigated and some small higher quality wetlands must be mitigated at a higher compensation ratio, of approximately 3:1. This increased compensation ratio makes it more costly to mitigate, thereby discouraging the filling of higher quality wetlands. Conversely, the filling of these very small higher quality wetlands will create a net gain through the creation of new wetlands. A land developer's cost to participate in this wetland mitigation bank should not be confused with other impact fees. This concept presents an opportunity for developers to participate on a voluntary basis. There are three reasons a developer will voluntarily participate in this program, and all are monetary reasons: 1. the value of buildable versus non-buildable land; 2. a developer cannot balance his earth work and wetland mitigation work on a small site; and 3. the value of time and timing throughout the final development approval process. (Time = $) Where are we with our wetland mitigation project? The project data base gathering has been completed. We are about to start setting realistic goals and objectives based on the economic realities of implementing our ultimate wish list. We will be looking at creating additional credits or trade-off for enhancement to existing low quality wetlands and evaluate potential mitigation credits for earth work such as removal of fill to an off-site location. This might even benefit the land developer. However, the real question is, what will be the final cost? The per acre wetland construction cost has not been determined. The formula to determine this cost is currently being developed. It appears that it will include all site planning costs (currently $250,000), construction costs that include all required fill removal and other earth work, all planting of specified wetland plants that will probably consist of a large percentage of plant plugs rather than seeds, and the construction of passive recreation facilities such as trails, boardwalks, signage, etc. In addition, the formula will include the costs to comply with the Army Corps of Engineers' 3 to 5 year monitoring requirements and an amount of money to create a small endowment fund for ongoing maintenance costs. How can land developers participate in the wetland mitigation bank? Land developers will voluntarily ask to participate in the bank. They will have to pass the Army Corps of Engineers' and DuPage County's criteria, and they must be willing to contribute to the per acre wetland mitigation banking cost. There are two important issues that also need to be included in the formula. The first issue is the cost of the land that will be used to mitigate a wetland problem. Developers claim that wetland regulations are taking away their land rights, and they should be compensated for this. If this statement is true, then we should be compensated for allowing developers to use public lands to mitigate their wetland problems. Once land is committed to the wetland bank, it is under the Corps of Engineers' jurisdiction and must be maintained according to that criteria if the area is going to function as a viable wetland resource. Unbuildable flood plain and wetland property in our area is valued at $15,000 to $20,000 per acre. Prime residential property has sold recently for $140,000. People in many parts of this country are appalled at these figures, however, these are the realities of what an urban society has created as people move out to the suburbs in search of a better quality of life. This last statement brings us back full circle to the second major missing piece of the puzzle — community education and awareness of the value of wetlands. If we all could understand and appreciate the value of wetlands it could help break the sequence of events that fuel society's continual efforts to destroy our environment. People's ignorance on wetland regulations is not to be taken as forgiveness to destroy wetlands. The missing piece of the equation is the cost for a community education and awareness program on the value of wetlands. We are proposing to do something about this. Through the joint efforts of a citizen advocacy group, Partners for the Lincoln Marsh, and The Cosley Foundation, Inc., the District has begun to tell its story about the Lincoln Marsh Natural Area and our greenbelt. This greenbelt is called Wheaton's EcoBelt. This group has begun a fund-raising campaign to build a single purpose environmental center on the EcoBelt to tell of the value of wetlands. What can YOU do to preserve wetlands and educate people of the value of wetlands? We believe this story must be told at the local level in a hands-on environment if we can ever hope to turn the tide of public sentiment towards the need to preserve wetlands. Only through an educated voting constituency can an environmental policy be molded that will ensure a quality of life for future generations. We all expect it today, but will it be there tomorrow? It is time for action. The Felixes and Oscars of the '90s must leam to live together. Stay involved if you are currently involved in the wetland issue. Get involved or find someone on your staff or in your community who is involved and leam from them. Consider creating a wetland park within your jurisdiction or purchase or adopt one that already exists. This nation's wetland policy issue is your opportunity — seize it. About the Author Ken Kutska is Superintendent of Parks and Planning for the Wheaton Park District.
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