Bush Draws Environmentalists’ Anger With Wetlands Proposal : Resources: President’s plan rejects the theory that ‘every mud puddle is a wetland,’ a spokesman says.

President Bush announced a new wetlands policy Friday, saying that he hopes to slow the destruction of valuable swamps, marshes and bogs but balance environmental protection with economic growth.

White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said the new policy rejects the theory that “every mud puddle is a wetland.”

Conservationists accused Bush of abandoning his 1988 campaign promise to achieve “no net loss” of the nation’s wetlands.

“The Administration’s new wetlands policy represents a death sentence for millions of acres of this critical American resource,” said Jay D. Hair, president of the National Wildlife Federation.

Wetlands used to be considered useless, but now are recognized as being ecologically vital.

“Wetlands serve an important role in flood control. They help filter waste from water,” Bush said in a statement issued in Kennebunkport, Me., where he is on vacation. “They provide an important habitat and breeding ground for fish, birds and animals and they are an important recreational resource.”

The government estimates that more than half of the 215 million acres of wetlands originally found in the continental United States have been destroyed, with current losses estimated at 290,000 acres a year. Alaska has an estimated 170 million acres of wetlands.

But regulations intended to protect wetlands have infuriated farmers, developers, small landowners, oil and gas companies and others who found that they might be prohibited from building on their land.

Complaints have grown louder since 1989, when a new government manual for defining wetlands seemed to expand the reach of federal jurisdiction to cover property that is rarely wet.

Included in Friday’s announcement is a new proposed manual, with complicated rules for soil saturation and vegetation that apparently will drop protection for millions of acres that have been covered since 1989.

“The Administration’s decision is welcome news,” said Dean Kleckner, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation. “We have argued all along that lands classified as wetlands should be truly wet.”

Bush promised to seek more funds to buy endangered wetlands, while streamlining current regulatory programs that have angered property owners seeking permission to develop their land.

“The plan seeks to balance two important objectives--the protection, restoration and creation of wetlands and the need for sustained economic growth and development,” the President said.

Agriculture Secretary Edward Madigan said the plan was “good news for America’s farmers” and “the beginning of a process to restore common sense to the federal government’s wetlands rules and regulations.”

The proposal includes promises to seek funding for wetlands acquisition and to look into creating incentives for wetlands restoration. There is to be a study of how to classify wetlands, with varying levels of protection.

Environmentalists praised one aspect of Bush’s plan: a proposal to expand coverage of current law to include draining, dredging and flooding of wetlands--activities that have been unregulated. Otherwise, their reaction was fierce.

“What the Administration proposes is an ecological disaster, an outrage,” said Jim Tripp, executive director of the Environmental Defense Fund. “The goal here appears to be to allow and endorse the destruction of tens of millions of acres of wetlands.”

The National Wildlife Federation’s board of directors appealed to Bush to reconsider.

Steve Moyer, a wetlands specialist at the wildlife federation, said the Administration’s reliance on “mitigation banking”--requiring developers to create wetlands to replace what is destroyed--was “wishful thinking intended to ease the guilty consciences of politicians.”

In response to landowners’ complaints about wetlands regulation, Congress has been considering proposals that would make drastic changes, eliminating the Environmental Protection Agency’s role and requiring the government to compensate landowners who are not allowed to develop their property.

“Let’s face it, the wetlands program has been under severe criticism without too many defenders,” said F. Henry Habicht, the EPA’s deputy administrator. He said the Administration’s proposal would provide stronger protection for wetlands than the bills gathering support in Congress.

Asked about the charge that millions of acres of wetlands would go unprotected, Fitzwater responded: “If you’re from the school that says every mud puddle is a wetland, I don’t think that makes good sense.”