A Bi-Weekly Publication  Friday April 22, 2005       In This Issue: ·         PRESIDENT'S WETLAND INITIATIVE: STILL A JOKE ONE YEAR LATER ·         SIGNUP FOR UPCOMING WETLAND WORKSHOPS ·         DEQ ORDER IN HUGGET CASE ·         WETLANDS AND GREAT LAKES RESTORATION PRESIDENT'S WETLAND INITIATIVE: STILL A JOKE ONE YEAR LATER One year after the Earth Day announcement of a new Presidential Wetland Initiative, a new report attempts to assure us that the Bush Administration is "on track" to meeting the goal of improving, restoring, and protecting 3 million acres of wetlands. It seems that the report's authors used a chapter from the Enron book of accounting: acres of wetland lost through the federal Section 404 permitting program were not taken into consideration, thus the numbers represent gross, not net acres. The National Wildlife Federation has distributed a brief rebuttal of the administration's claim.   If the President was serious about wetland protection, he would scrap a policy guidance to Corps and EPA field staff that requires them to seek Headquarters approval before asserting jurisdiction over an estimated 20 million acres of water and wetlands across the country. This destructive policy guidance, and the administration's unconscionable attempts to greenwash the issue with bogus progress reports, further demonstrates the need for Congress to pass the Clean Water Authority Restoration Act (H.R. 1356). This bill, which has been championed by Congressman Dingell, would reaffirm the intent and scope of the Clean Water Act, extending protections to all waters of the United States. Please call or write your Representative this Earth Day 2005 and urge them to support H.R. 1356.   SIGNUP FOR UPCOMING WETLAND WORKSHOPS Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council, East Michigan Environmental Action Council, and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality are hosting a series of workshops in June focused on wetland protection options for local units of government. Workshops are scheduled for the following dates and locations, from 1 to 5pm:   Date Location Presenter June 1 Grand Rapids TOMWC June 7 Traverse City TOMWC June 8 Bay City EMEAC June 14 Alpena TOMWC June 14 Washington Twp; Macomb County EMEAC June 16 Ann Arbor EMEAC June 22 Marquette TOMWC June 23 East Lansing EMEAC   A conference brochure with registration instructions is available on the Watershed Council Website.   WETLANDS AND GREAT LAKES RESTORATION Next week participants in the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration (GLRC) – the group charged with developing a plan to protect and restore the Great Lakes – will be meeting in Traverse City. Not surprisingly, protecting and restoring wetlands has been identified as a priority in several of the early drafts of the various Strategy Teams. To learn more about the GLRC, and Great Lakes restoration in general, visit http://www.restorethelakes.org/   Order Issued in Hugget Case Michigan DEQ Director Steve Chester recently issued a Final Determination and Order in a wetland case that has been in litigation for over 15 years. The case involves a cranberry farming operation in Cheboygan County operated by Wallace Hugget. Under the order announced today, cranberry farming will be restricted to approximately 125 acres. In addition, Huggett must reclaim and restore approximately 50 acres of wetlands on site and mitigate approximately 180 acres and possibly more, off site. Finally, the DEQ is imposing rigorous groundwater monitoring requirements to ensure that agrichemicals do not impact or impair other natural features in the area. We appreciate the DEQ's efforts in this case, and encourage the agency to continue to make enforcement of the Wetland Protection Act a high priority. DEQ Press Release.     Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council 426 Bay Street , Petoskey, Michigan 49770 Phone: (231) 347-1181 x 118 Fax: (231) 347-5928 Email: chrisgrubb@watershedcouncil.org  Web: http://www.michiganwetlands.org/