The Politics of “Better Than Nothing” in National Wetland Protection Law

During his recent presidential campaign, now US President Donald J. Trump seized the opportune moment of discontent with the establishment when he used the phrase “drain the swamp” to illustrate his pledge to remove “corrupt, career politicians” preventing the United States from being “great again.” Trump’s campaign to “drain the swamp” provides an ironically accurate illustration of the United States’ policies on wetland management for more than 120 years—policies that encouraged the conversion of what were considered wasted swamplands into productive uplands that could be used for agriculture and other economic activity.1 This “drain the swamp” mentality has also been displayed historically throughout Europe and, more recently, Asia, Africa, and Oceania—so much so, in fact, that a recent study estimates that, in the last 300 years, humans have eliminated 87 percent of wetlands globally,2 with 30 percent of these losses occurring since 1970.3 The rapid disappearance of global wetlands has become increasingly alarming as science continues to indicate that wetlands are not wasted and unproductive areas but rather areas of immense importance to both humans and wildlife and among the most productive ecosystems worldwide.4 Once recognition of wetland importance was established, protection campaigns followed beginning with an international treaty: the Convention onWetlands (hereinafter the “Ramsar Convention”), signed in Ramsar, Iran in 1971.5 The Ramsar