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INDEX:

---EDITOR'S NOTE--

---EDITOR'S CHOICE---

·	At U.S. Army Corps, Shift of Mission Hasn’t Come Easily
·	EPA official ousted while fighting Dow
·	Farm bill likely veto-proof
·	House rejects farm bill veto – Case of the Missing Pages
·	Death Looms for a Flood-Control Project (Yazoo Pumps)
·	VA: Court reverses Sparrows Point LNG decision

---NATIONAL NEWS---

·	Global Warming Has Little Impact In Tropical Storm And Hurricane Numbers, NOAA Reports
·	National Water Program Strategy: Response to Climate Change Draft Comments Welcome

---LEGISLATIVE NEWS---

·	Coalition Applauds U.S. House for Passing Strong Invasive Species Bill
·	Congressional Investment Needed in Great Lakes to Help Beleaguered Midwest Economy
·	Izembek NWR “Road to Nowhere” Passes House Committee
·	Proposed change to water law riles landowners

---STATE NEWS---  

·	MT: Wetlands lawsuit in court
·	CA: Wetlands prove murky for council
·	SC: Conservationists: Wetlands preservation in danger
·	NY: Flushing River wetlands project may be soaked
·	MS: Why a Gulf Wetlands May Become a City
·	OH: Grant to help restore creek, wetlands
·	VA: James Taylor's Va. Beach concert will aid migratory songbirds
·	WA: Public gets another look at Spokane River water quality plan
·	ND: Conrad: 'Best farm bill ever' for ND provides needed Devils Lake basin aid
·	OH: Wetlands help ensure our water quality and environmental integrity
·	IN: Collier Lodge, wetlands restorations top wish list
·	AK: Interior Department Defers Controversial Leasing at Teshekpuk Lake
·	MA: New bylaw gives Conservation Commission power to regulate wetlands
·	FL: Hillsborough Wetlands Division Presents 'One-Stop' Permit Process
·	WA: A pitch to fix Duwamish
·	CA: Court Orders City of Long Beach to Rescind Approval of Home Depot Next to Wetlands
·	MN: New mining industry leaves Arrowhead wetlands vulnerable
·	VA: Opinion: Virginia should plan for the coming sea-level rise
·	IL/IN: Black Beauty Coal Co. to create new wetlands in Indiana as part of settlement with EPA
·	FL: Reservoir larger than Manhattan planned to help Everglades
·	NJ: New Jersey Horseshoe Crab Moratorium: Good for Red Knots
·	PA: EPA reformulates contentious rules for restoring destroyed wetlands
·	MD: Marshes produce mercury hazard
·	CO: More than half of all CRP Acres in PLJV Region to Expire by 2012

---RESOURCES AND PUBLICATIONS---

·	Twine Line, Publication of the Ohio Sea Grant
·	Attributing physical and biological impacts to anthropogenic climate change
·	New EPA Water Quality Web site Called "ATTAINS" Released
·	EPA Releases New Training Materials for Watershed Organizations’ Financing Strategies
·	The Waters of Michigan
·	Laws Can Prevent Harmful Wildlife Animal and Plant Invasions, Says ELI Report

---POTPOURRI---

·	Loss of Wetlands
·	New Great Lakes Film
·	FWS Calls for Coastal Wetland and Habitat Grant Applications
·	Mike Harden commentary: Dreamer envisions wetlands trail
·	Scientists Discover 'Frogamander' Fossil
·	Pink and purple blooms fill wetlands

---JOB OPENINGS---

·	Director, Kansas Wetlands Education Center
·	Watershed Program Director
·	Water Resources Engineer/Environmental Scientist
·	Research Coordinator for the San Francisco Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve
·	Marine Ecologist, The Nature Conservancy (TNC – Seattle)
·	Associate Director of Watershed Organization

---STUDENT JOBS ---

---MEETINGS AND TRAINING---

·	The 27th Annual International Submerged Lands Management Conference
·	Southeast Stormwater Institute
·	4th Annual RAE Conference on Coastal & Estuarine Habitat Restoration
·	Call for Papers - Stream Restoration in the Southeast: Advancing the Science & Practice
·	Master Naturalist Volunteer Training Opportunity

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For a rolling calendar of meeting, conferences, and other events visit the ASWM calendar.

EDITOR'S NOTE

Dear Friends and Colleagues, A sign of spring in Maine comes via the post—a notice from our state representative on the release date, size and location of trout to area lakes and ponds. It’s this time of year that I can never reach my father by telephone as he’s “gone fishing” upstate. In my hometown of Damariscotta, the famed alewives travel up the fish run and waterfalls at the Mills. I remember seeing this event as a child and feeling sorry for the ones that didn’t make it either because an eagle swooped down on the steady silver stream of fish or because raccoons sat on rocks and took their pick as though from a vending machine. Each year the alewives return to Damariscotta Lake to spawn. http://www.gma.org/undersea_landscapes/alewives/ The Week of May 29 the Society of Wetlands Scientists will hold their annual conference “Capitalizing on Wetlands” at the Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, DC.  ASWM is holding a series of sessions on state programs and related topics Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  The schedule for the ASWM sponsored sessions is posted at::  http://www.aswm.org/calendar/sws_aswm.htm#schedule Also, the Thursday morning plenary is organized by ASWM. Information on the SWS conference is at: http://www.sws.org/2008_meeting/index.html Registration is open for ASWM’s upcoming Wetlands 2008: Wetlands & Global Climate Change, September 16-18, 2008. For more information and to register, visit: http://aswm.org/#wetlands8

Leah Stetson Editor, Wetland Breaking News

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EDITOR'S CHOICE

At U.S. Army Corps, Shift of Mission Hasn’t Come Easily

By Patrik Jonsson – Christian Science Monitor – May 21, 2008 The US Army Corps of Engineers can move rivers and shape beaches, but can it change the course of its own legacy?  After Corps-built levees failed under duress from hurricane Katrina, the bureaucracy of 35,000 military engineers, hydrologists, and economists has been trying to do just that. For an agency that likes to brag that it's older than the US – it was created by the Continental Congress in 1775 to build fortifications at Bunker Hill – transforming itself from "Congress's general contractor" into America's coastal policy leader is no small challenge. For full article, go to: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0521/p10s01-usgn.html

EPA official ousted while fighting Dow

By Michael Hawthorne – Chicago Tribune – May 2, 2008 The battle over dioxin contamination in this economically stressed region had been raging for years when a top Bush administration official turned up the pressure on Dow Chemical to clean it up. On Thursday, following months of internal bickering over Mary Gade's interactions with Dow, the administration forced her to quit as head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Midwest office, based in Chicago. Gade told the Tribune she resigned after two aides to national EPA administrator Stephen Johnson took away her powers as regional administrator and told her to quit or be fired by June 1. For full story, go to: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-epa-official-resigns_webmay02,0,601716.story

Farm bill likely veto-proof

By David Thompson – Sun Gazette – May 16, 2008 President George W. Bush has promised to veto a $290 billion farm bill, but overwhelming support for the bill by both the House and Senate indicates a presidential veto doesn’t stand a chance. The House passed the bill 318 to 106 on Wednesday. The Senate passed the bill 81 to 17 on Thursday. Bush threatened to veto the bill, which comes up for reauthorization every five years, saying it was fiscally irresponsible and too generous to wealthy farmers, according to the Associated Press. For full story, go to: http://www.sungazette.com/page/content.detail/id/510376.html?nav=5011 For related story, go to: http://www.pennlive.com/news/patriotnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1210816528253370.xml&coll=1

House rejects farm bill veto – Case of the Missing Pages

By Associated Press – Baltimore Sun – May 22, 2008 The House of Representatives overwhelmingly rejected President Bush's veto yesterday of a $290 billion farm bill, but what should have been a stinging defeat for the president became an embarrassment for Democrats. Only hours before the House's 316-108 vote, Bush had vetoed the five-year measure, saying it was too expensive and gave too much money to wealthy farmers when farm incomes are high. The Senate then was expected to follow suit quickly. Action stalled, however, after the discovery that Congress had omitted a 34-page section of the bill when lawmakers sent the massive measure to the White House. That means Bush vetoed a different bill from the one Congress passed, leaving leaders scrambling to figure out whether it could become law. For full story, go to: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-te.farmbill22may22,0,3360886.story

Death Looms for a Flood-Control Project (Yazoo Pumps)

By Felicity Barringer – The New York Times – April 9, 2008 Seven decades of hydro-engineering have transformed the lower Mississippi Delta from wetlands to dry fields of cotton and soybeans. Levees and canals funnel runoff from hundreds of thousands of acres here to a huge set of metal gates that sit across Steele Bayou. For full story, go to: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/09/us/09yazoo.html?_r=2&ref=us&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

VA: Court reverses Sparrows Point LNG decision

Energy Current News Digest – May 20, 2008 The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit overturned a decision by a district court in Baltimore County, Md., prohibiting the siting of the proposed Sparrows Point liquefied natural gas (LNG) project. AES Sparrows Point LNG and Mid-Atlantic Express filed a lawsuit against Baltimore County, its executive James T. Smith Jr. and zoning commissioner William J. Wiseman III seeking a declaration that County Bill 9-07, which prohibits the siting of any LNG terminal in the county's Chesapeake Bay Critical Area, is preempted by the Natural Gas Act (NGA), which gives exclusive authority to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). For full story, go to: http://www.energycurrent.com/index.php?id=3&storyid=10659  For related article, go to: http://www.vnf.com/news-alerts-262.html

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NATIONAL NEWS

Global Warming Has Little Impact In Tropical Storm And Hurricane Numbers, NOAA Reports

National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) News Release – ENN – May 20, 2008 A new model simulation of Atlantic hurricane activity for the last two decades of this century projects fewer hurricanes overall, but a slight increase in intensity for hurricanes that do occur. Hurricanes are also projected to have more intense rainfall, on average, in the future. "This study adds more support to the consensus finding of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and other reports that it is likely that hurricanes will gradually become more intense as the climate continues to warm," said Tom Knutson, research meteorologist and lead author of the report. "It's a bit of a mixed picture in the Atlantic, because we're projecting fewer hurricanes overall.” For full story, go to: http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/36568

National Water Program Strategy: Response to Climate Change Draft Comments Welcome

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Water has made available for comment a public review draft of the National Water Program Strategy: Response to Climate Change. This draft document represents the National Water Program’s initial effort to identify potential impacts of climate change for clean water and drinking water programs and define actions to respond to these impacts. A March 28, 2008, memorandum signed by the Assistant Administrator for Water requests comments on the draft strategy. For the request for comments, see: http://www.epa.gov/water/climatechange/docs/3-28-08_memo_to_interested_parties.pdf  For the draft document open to public comment, go to: http://www.epa.gov/water/climatechange/docs/3-27-08_ccdraftstrategy_final.pdf The comment period has been extended. Please submit comments to the following e-mail address: Water_Climate_Change@epa.gov by June 10, 2008. You also can mail your comments to the following address: Attention: National Water Program Draft Climate Change Strategy, U.S. EPA, Office of Water, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Mail Code: 4101M - Washington, DC 20460

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LEGISLATIVE NEWS

Coalition Applauds U.S. House for Passing Strong Invasive Species Bill

Contact: Andy Buchsbaum – Healthy Lakes, Healthy Lives Blog – April 24, 2008 The Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition today applauded Congress for passing a bill to prevent aquatic invasive species from entering the Great Lakes and other U.S. waters. “We applaud the U.S. House of Representatives for passing a strong invasive species bill that protects our lakes, our national parks, our economy, our public health and our way of life,” said Tom Kiernan, president of the National Parks Conservation Association and co-chair of the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition. “We urge the Senate to pass its bill and President Bush to sign into law these strong protections from invasive species, because the longer we wait, the problem will only get worse and more costly.” For full blog entry, go to: http://www.healthylakes.org/threats/2008/04/24/coalition-applauds-us-house-for-passing-strong-invasive-species-bill

Congressional Investment Needed in Great Lakes to Help Beleaguered Midwest Economy

Contact: Cameron Davis – Alliance for the Great Lakes Press Release – May 19, 2008 A U.S. House subcommittee is poised to hear testimony Wednesday on legislation that would authorize up to $150 million a year for cleaning up contaminated sediment and restoring aquatic habitat in the Great Lakes. The move by the U.S. Senate to introduce legislation reauthorizing and strengthening the Great Lakes Legacy Act of 2002 comes just two months after a study by the Brookings Institution projected major financial gains from investing in efforts to bring the Great Lakes back to health. The legislation (S 2994) would boost funding to revitalize former industrial waterfronts around the Great Lakes through 2013, many of which continue to cope with industrial pollution that has never been addressed. For full press release, go to: http://www.greatlakes.org/NETCOMMUNITY/Page.aspx?pid=725&srcid=476

Izembek NWR “Road to Nowhere” Passes House Committee

Birding Community E-Bulletin – May 6, 2008 On 23 April, members of the House Natural Resources Committee approved H.R. 2801, legislation that would allow the construction of a $30 million, U.S. taxpayer-funded road through Alaska’s Izembek National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) and its Congressionally-designated Wilderness Area. This road would connect the small communities of King Cove and Cold Bay. Izembek National Wildlife Range was established in 1960 and was designated a NWR in 1980 to protect the region’s extraordinary ecological values and to potentially safeguard waterfowl, shorebirds, and wetlands of national and international significance. In 1987 the Reagan Administration recognized Izembek as a RAMSAR site, the first site so-named by the United States under the Convention on Wetlands of International Significance. Numerous migratory birds depend on the refuge, including Steller’s Eider, “Black” Brant, and Emperor Goose, all of which are declining in Alaska. H.R. 2801 has yet to reach the House floor for a vote. For background on the proposed road, see this report from the National Wildlife Refuge Association and the Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges: http://www.refugenet.org/new-publications/Izembek.html For full e-bulletin, go to: http://www.refugenet.org/birding/maySBC08.html

Proposed change to water law riles landowners

By Oren Dorell – USA Today – May 23, 2008 A proposal backed by environmentalists to change one word in the Clean Water Act and subject tens of millions more acres of land to new federal oversight has ranchers and farmers fuming.  "It's a huge grab for more federal intervention in our lives, and we don't need that," says Montana cattle rancher Randy Smith says. Smith sometimes diverts water on his 20,000-acre spread for the sake of his animals or crops. He worries that doing so under a new law will mean lots of paperwork, lawyers and site visits rather than a few scrapes of a backhoe. For full story, go to: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/2008-05-21-water-law_N.htm?csp=34

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STATES NEWS

MT: Wetlands lawsuit in court

By Larry Kline – Helena Independent Record – May 21, 2008 A district judge will decide whether Lewis and Clark County officials followed public-participation laws and one of their own planning documents when they approved the placement of water and sewer lines through wetlands adjacent to the county fairgrounds. In a court hearing this week before Judge Thomas Honzel, a husband-and-wife team argued that the county had violated its fairgrounds pond plan when officials agreed to run utility lines through the wetlands. They also said officials hadn’t provided proper public notice and claimed the county’s public-participation policy doesn’t meet the requirements of state law. For the full article, go to: http://www.helenair.com/articles/2008/05/21/local/70lo_080521_wetlands.txt

CA: Wetlands prove murky for council

By Julia Scott – San Jose Mercury News – May 20, 2008 A City Council discussion about the nagging inconsistencies in what the city defines as wetlands Tuesday night ended without consensus on a way to resolve the issue, which has dogged city planners for years. Protected as they are under all circumstances, wetlands are the frontline in the ongoing battle between conservation and development on the coast. A review of the city's four "conflicting" definitions at Tuesday's City Council meeting prompted some pointed disagreement from council members over whether the city's planning documents deserved to be rewritten. For full story, go to: http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_9328569?nclick_check=1 For related article, go to: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/20/EDHC10PNGP.DTL

SC: Conservationists: Wetlands preservation in danger

By Liz Mitchell – Hilton Head Island Packet – May 20, 2008 Conservationists are worried that thousands of acres of freshwater wetlands could be endangered under a proposed resolution to be discussed today by a state House committee. The changes are favored by developers who want fewer rules governing building in coastal South Carolina. In April, Reps. William Witherspoon, R-Conway, and Dwight Loftis, R-Greenville, proposed a resolution that would require the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control and its Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management to review coastal management policies that have been in place for more than 30 years. For full article, go to: http://www.islandpacket.com/news/local/story/502863.html

NY: Flushing River wetlands project may be soaked

By John Lauinger – New York Daily News – May 20, 2008 Tidal marshland along the heavily polluted Flushing River is being reborn, but the painstaking project is not the work of eager environmentalists. Credit for the riverbank's plant-by-plant regeneration goes to a frequent enemy of the environment - a highway project. The state Transportation Department is restoring 2-1/2 acres of marshland along the river's west bank, which borders the grossly contaminated Willets Point industrial zone. For full story, go to: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2008/05/20/2008-05-20_flushing_river_wetlands_project_may_be_s.html

MS: Why a Gulf Wetlands May Become a City

By Patrik Jonsson - The Christian Science Monitor – May 19, 2008 If America learned one thing from hurricane Katrina, hydrologists argue, it should be this: Don't fill in tideland marshes and build on them. Such human activity, they insist, diminishes the marshes' ability to absorb some of the wallop of storms as they strike coastal communities. Here on the westernmost reaches of Mississippi's marshes - the very place where Katrina rushed ashore on its path to becoming one of the worst natural disasters in US history - that lesson is being tested, with broad implications for US taxpayers who pay most of the bills for storm repairs. For full article, go to: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0521/p01s02-usgn.html

OH: Grant to help restore creek, wetlands

By Aaron K. Harris – Xenia Gazette – May 20, 2008 The North Fork Massies Creek watershed restoration and protection project will move forward thanks to a grant from the Ohio EPA announced earlier this month. The grant of $382,700 will help the Greene County Sanitary Engineering Department “re-naturalize the stream,” which runs through Cedarville and Xenia townships, said Russ Gibson of the Ohio EPA. Along with about $410,000 awarded for the project in 2007, about 4,000 linear feet of stream and 2.1 acres of wetlands will eventually be restored, Gibson said. For full story, go to: http://xeniagazette.1upmonitor.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=4&ArticleID=159486&TM=30639.58

VA: James Taylor's Va. Beach concert will aid migratory songbirds

By Scott Harper – The Virginian Pilot – May 20, 2008 Singer and songwriter James Taylor will have more than Carolina on his mind Thursday night when he plays an outdoor concert here. He also will be thinking about Virginia's Eastern Shore and its neotropical songbirds. The famed rock 'n' roller and folk star said Tuesday that he will donate most of the proceeds from his Virginia Beach show to the Southern Tip Partnership, a coalition of government agencies and environmental groups dedicated to preserving songbird habitat on the lower Eastern Shore. The area is a haven for thousands of migratory birds that stop at the southern tip, on the edge of the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean, to rest and feed during their annual trek between Canada and South America. For full story, go to: http://hamptonroads.com/2008/05/video-james-taylors-va-beach-concert-will-aid-migratory-songbirds

WA: Public gets another look at Spokane River water quality plan

Contact: Jani Gilbert – Washington Dept. of Ecology News – May 20, 2008 Public comments received last fall have resulted in the Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) making substantial changes to the water-quality improvement plan to restore dissolved oxygen in the Spokane River, warranting a second public review. The new comment period is opening today and continuing through June 24, 2008, so no one is surprised by revisions in the document that will guide work toward a cleaner, healthier and more beautiful Spokane River. For the full story, go to: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/news/2008news/2008-112.html

ND: Conrad: 'Best farm bill ever' for ND provides needed Devils Lake basin aid

By Kevin Bonham – Grand Forks Herald – May 19, 2008 Flooded farm and ranch land in the Devils Lake Basin could be enrolled in federal Wetlands Reserve or Conservation Reserve programs, under a provision of the $290 billion 2008 farm bill. As many as 200,000 acres in North Dakota — most of them in the Devils Lake and Stump Lake basin — would be eligible for enrollment, according to Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., who briefed Devils Lake community leaders on May 19th. For full article, go to: http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=76949&section=news&freebie_check&CFID=37811622 &CFTOKEN=31971801&jsessionid=8830eff1beb96a5254d7

OH: Wetlands help ensure our water quality and environmental integrity

By Todd Helberg – Defiance Cr