7636

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7636
• Author: National Research Council
• Title: Editor
• USFW Year: Series
• USFW - Doc Type: 1992
• Copyright Material: YES

OVERVIEW 31
TABLE 1.8 Allocation of Flood-Prone Areas and Wetlands
(in millions of square acres) by Land Category
Restored
Wetland as
Percentage of
Land Category
Flood- Existing Restored Total Flood-
Category Total plain Wetland Wetland Wetland plain Total
Agriculture 1,233 98 40 35 75 36 3
Forest 497 39 41 14 55 36 3
Parks 211 17 ~ 21 6 27 35 3
Tundra 189 0 170 0 170 0 0
Urban 74 6 2 3 4 50 3
Defense 24 2 1 1 1 50 3
Desert 21 0 0 0 0 0 0
Other 16 0 0 0 0 0 0
Total 2,265 162 274 59 332
SOURCE: Johnston Associates, 1989.
The restoration of river corridors would directly address the rec-
ommendations made by the President's Commission on Americans
Outdoors (1986). The riverways called for in its recommendations
fully embrace the concept of riverine floodplain restoration. If 2,000
river and stream segments are protected and revitalized as the com-
mission recommended, the 59 million acres of restored wetland could
be distributed along these corridors. Given that the average river
segment length is 200 miles, the total length of restored river corri-
dors would be 400,000 miles. This would be only 2.6 times the length
of outlet drains, equivalent to half of the streams surveyed by the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA, 1990), and less than 1.3
percent of the total length of streams in the United States. Distribut-
ing the 59 million acres' of land along the stream and river segments
would create a corridor with an average width of 1,000 ft.
Conditions of Lakes
Lakes provide many examples of why abatement of pollutant loading
is a necessary but often insufficient step toward improving and re-
storing freshwater quality and quantity, and ecosystem functions.
Many lakes have lost significant storage capacity through siltation,
which reduces their recreational and water supply usefulness, im-