id	author	title	date	pages	extension	mime	words	sentence	flesch	summary	cache	txt
cjel-13314	Grewal, Rajpreet K.; Scanlan, Melissa K.	Navigating Rough Waters After Sackett v. EPA: Federal, Tribal, and State Strategies	2025	65	.pdf	application/pdf	27105	1158	51	II. IMPORTANCE AND VITAL FUNCTIONS OF WETLANDS AND EPHEMERAL AND INTERMITTENT STREAMS A. Wetlands In the first few months after the Sackett decision, the U.S. Environ- mental Protection Agency (EPA) estimated the elimination of federal jurisdiction may result in the loss of protection of 63% of the Nation’s wetland acres.5 To better understand this loss of jurisdiction, we re- view the scientific literature on the importance and vital functions of wetlands. In its most recent con- gressionally-mandated report, “Status and Trends of Wetlands in the Conterminous United States 2009 to 2019” (Status and Trends Re- port), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service discusses the change in the amount of wetlands in the study decade.17 They report that in 2019, “there were an estimated 116.4M ac (47.1M ha) of wetlands in the conterminous U.S.”18 In the study decade, the amount of wetland losses surpassed wetland gains resulting in a net wetland loss of 221,000 acres between 2009 and 2019.19 This, when compared to the previous report period (2004–2009), showed an accelerated rate of net wetland loss by over 50%.20 Looking closer at the categories of wetlands, the Status and Trends Report highlighted that the data “in- dicates a fundamental alteration of wetland type at a national scale”21 moving from vegetated wetlands to non-vegetated wetlands, obscur- ing the magnitude of vegetated wetland loss.22 From 2009–2019, veg- etated wetlands had a net decrease of 670,000 acres, an area exceed- ing the land area of Rhode Island.23 However, non-vegetated wetlands increased in net area by 488,000 acres.24 Non-vegetated wetlands in- clude beaches, mud flats, shoals, and sand bars.25 These reports show a trend in wetlands loss measured in acres and in quality (vegetated to non-vegetated) over time.	cache/cjel-13314.pdf	txt/cjel-13314.txt