EID Guidance Attachment B EID Guidance Protection of Wetlands - Statement of the President Re Executive Order 11990.
Wetlands are areas of great natural products, rivers, and habitat for fish and wildlife resources.
Wetlands contribute to the production of agricultural products and timber, and provide recreational, scientific, and aesthetic resources of national interest. The unwise use and development of wetlands will destroy many of their special qualities and important natural functions. Recent estimates indicate that the United States has already lost over 40 percent of our 120 million acres of wetlands inventoried in the 1950's. This piecemeal alteration and destruction of wetlands through draining, dredging, filling, and other means has had an adverse cumulative impact on our natural resources and on the quality of human life. Executive Order 11990.