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<br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />CWCB Supplemental Statement <br />December 19, 1997 <br />Page 4 <br /> <br />those lost between the 1970s and the mid-1980s" (Emphasis added). The cited source for <br />this fact is the National Research Council, "New Era for Irrigation", page 96. In fact, <br />''New Era for Irrigation" states the following on page 96: "Agricultural development <br />accounted for 87 percent of all wetlands lost between 1950 and 1970 and 54 percent of <br />those lost between the 1970s and the mid-1980s" and does not assign these losses <br />exclusively to water development for irrigation. "New Era for Irrigation" cites as its <br />source "Agricultural Resources and Environmental Indicators", USDA Economic <br />Research Service, 1994 ("Handbook 705"). "Handbook 705" is clear that the wetland <br />losses data are nationwide figures (gross not net) due to all types of agricultural activities. <br />In fact, pages 11-12 of Handbook 705 indicate that the vast majority of wetland losses <br />occurred due to drainage activities in the South and Great Lakes region where irrigation is <br />not practiced and only a small fraction (less than 20%) of nationwide gross wetland losses <br />in the last 200 years have occurred in the 17 Western states. Further, both ''New Era for <br />Irrigation" and "Handbook 705" indicate that irrigation practices in the West have created <br />large amounts of important wetland and upland habitat that at least partially offset the <br />losses that have resulted from water development in an arid region. The Commission <br />should examine the process by which the statement was inaccurately modified from the <br />original meaning as stated in "New Era for Irrigation," and further why an irrelevant, <br />inaccurate, and inflammatory statement based on nationwide data was included in a <br />description of western water development. <br /> <br />4 <br /> <br />c;.'SllJoOU..fKllliW"lAC'~.m.I.WPn <br />DooooooIO..I'.I9'11 <br />