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SUMMARY <br />accompanied by loss and impairment of valuable environmental functions <br />and amenities important to humans, and since restoration of aquatic <br />ecosystems is possible, the committee concludes that alarge-scale <br />aquatic ecosystem restoration program in the United States should be <br />implemented to regain and protect the physical, chemical, and bio- <br />logical integrity of surface water. Such a program should seek to: <br />• correct nonpoint source pollution problems; <br />• arrest the decline of wildlife populations; and <br />• restore all types of wildlife habitats with priority to endangered <br />species habitat. <br />Failure to restore aquatic ecosystems promptly will result in sharply <br />increased environmental costs later, in the extinction of species or <br />ecosystem types, and in permanent ecological damage. <br />NATIONAL STRATEGY <br />The committee recommends that a national aquatic ecosystem res- <br />toration strategy be developed for the United States. This compre- <br />hensive program should set specific national restoration goals for <br />wetlands, rivers, streams, and lakes, and it should provide a national <br />assessment process to monitor achievement of those goals. The fol- <br />lowing recommendations are proposed as building blocks for the program <br />and its guiding strategy. Details of the program design should be <br />developed by federal and state agencies in collaboration with non- <br />governmental experts. A national strategy would include four ele- <br />ments: <br />1. National restoration goals and assessment strategies for each <br />ecoregion (regions that have broad similarities of soil, relief, and dom- <br />inant vegetation). <br />2. Principles for priority setting and decision making. <br />3. Policy and program redesign for federal and state agencies to <br />emphasize restoration. <br />4. Innovation in financing and use of land and water markets. <br />Achieving these restoration goals will require planning, federal <br />leadership, and federal funding, combined with financial-resources <br />and active involvement from all levels of government, as well as the <br />involvement of nongovernmental organizations and businesses. <br />Therefore, the federal government should initiate an interagency and <br />intergovernmental process to develop the national aquatic ecosystem <br />restoration strategy. The program should be developed and main- <br />tained under the firm leadership of a single responsible organization <br />