§1301 — Title 16 Conservation | U.S. Code

Summary

Congress says protecting and improving the Nation’s wetlands is important because it helps water and wildlife (including migratory waterfowl), reduces erosion and flooding, improves water quality and soil moisture, limits new farmland and retires farmed land, and enhances scenery and water planning. The Secretary of Agriculture (head of the Department of Agriculture) must run a program to prevent serious wetland loss beginning July 1, 1971.

Title 16, §1301

Conservation — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

The Congress finds that it is in the public interest to preserve, restore, and improve the wetlands of the Nation, and thereby to conserve surface waters, to preserve and improve habitat for migratory waterfowl and other wildlife resources, to reduce runoff, soil and wind erosion, and contribute to flood control, to contribute to improved water quality and reduce stream sedimentation, to contribute to improved subsurface moisture, to reduce acres of new land coming into production and to retire lands now in agricultural production, to enhance the natural beauty of the landscape, and to promote comprehensive and total water management planning. The Secretary of Agriculture (hereinafter in this chapter referred to as the “Secretary”) is authorized and directed to formulate and carry out a continuous program to prevent the serious loss of wetlands, and to preserve, restore, and improve such lands, which program shall begin on July 1, 1971.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Short Title

Pub. L. 91–559, § 1, Dec. 19, 1970, 84 Stat. 1468, provided: “That this Act [enacting this chapter] may be cited as the ‘Water Bank Act’.”

§1301 Congressional declaration of policy; authority of Secretary

Summary

Title 16, §1301

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Short Title

Citations & Metadata