EDF Praises Minnesota River Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) today welcomed an announcement by President Clinton of his Clean Water Initiative and the related approval of the Minnesota River Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program.

“The Initiative’s most exciting feature is its commitment to restoring wetlands, riverside forests and floodplains by expanding the Wetland Reserve Program and by launching the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program,” said EDF senior attorney Tim Searchinger, who helped design the Minnesota program. “The Clinton Administration appears to recognize that rivers and bays depend on the marshes and forests around them.”

“We also applaud the Clinton Administration and Minnesota Governor Arne Carlson for their agreement today to restore 190,000 acres of floodplain marshes and forests around the Minnesota River,” said Searchinger. “We believe it is the largest effort ever to restore the physical character of a river undertaken in the United States. For the first time, restoring rivers means not just better sewage treatment but better river habitat as well.”

The Minnesota River Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program is the second Enhancement Program announced to restore wetlands and forest buffers. Vice President Gore announced a 100,000 acre program on the Chesapeake Bay last October. Enhancement Programs combine state funds with a portion of the $20 billion federal Conseration Reserve Program to restore natural areas critical for water quality or endangered species problems. EDF first proposed the concept of Enhancement Programs in the spring of 1996 and worked closely with Minnesota and previously with Maryland in shaping their proposals. An Illinois proposal to restore 232,000 acres of land around the Illinois River is still pending before the U.S. Department of Agriculture.