This is a result of many factors including urban and agricultural development and coastal erosion. Wetlands have important ecological values and functions. It is estimated that 80 percent of the Nation's coastal fisheries are dependent on wetlands for spawning, nursery areas, and food sources. Both coastal and inland wetlands provide essential breeding, nesting, feeding, and predator escape habitats for millions of waterfowl, other birds, mammals, and reptiles. Well over one third of the 564 plant and animal species listed as threatened or endangered in the United States utilize wetland habitats during some portion of their life cycle.
Wetlands are also crucial to maintaining the hydrology of some watersheds.
They serve as natural reservoirs and as ground-water recharge areas and are important in protecting the quantity and quality of ground water used as a source of drinking water. Studies have also shown that the presence of wetlands in a flood plain can reduce flood peaks by 80 percent. Wetlands are vital to commercial and recreational sectors of our exonomy. Wetlands, especially bottomland forests, supply timber for the Nation's logging industry. Moreover, the sports fishing industry and the water fowl hunting industry are also dependent upon the continued productivitiy of America's wetlands.