Students’ work used in wetlands debate

Friday, June 13, 2003 | 4:47 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION: June 14, 2003

Two graduate students at the University of Nevada, Reno -- one from Las Vegas and the other from Yerington -- contributed to a national policy debate on wetlands management with their research for a class project.

Jasmine Vittori, a junior at the university, and Lindsay Bowman, a senior in conservation biology, took a class called wetland ecology management taught by Robert "Jerry" Qualls, associate professor of environmental and resource science.

Bowman said she was surprised at the scope of the project, but realized how important her work could be.

"When we were first told that we needed to do an internship for the class, and when this project was mentioned, I think I went into shock," Bowman, a graduate of Cheyenne High School in Las Vegas, said.

"I immediately realized what a big deal it was, knowing that our work could either have devastating or promising results for the state, as well as for the country," Bowman said.

The two said they recognized the risks to Nevada's wetlands if the Bush administration changes the Clean Water Act.

The proposed changes would allow development in wetlands and could dry up precious and scarce marshes in Nevada.

Nevada, much of which is in the Great Basin, has many wetlands that are on the brink of drying up or becoming too polluted to support wildlife, they found in their research.

For example, the Las Vegas Wash once hosted 2,000 acres of cattail marshes and a wetlands that stretched for 15 miles across the eastern edge of the Las Vegas Valley. However, as wastewater flows increased year by year from treatment plants and periodic flash floods swept the wash, the wetlands have been reduced to fewer than 200 acres.

Federal, state and local agencies are working together to restore the Las Vegas Wash wetlands. Others were not on the scientific radar screen for monitoring and saving them until Vittori and Bowman did their study.

"It feels incredible to know what we've done," Vittori, of Yerington, said.

Qualls, vice president of the Western Section of the Society of Wetland Scientists, said that Bowman and Vittori's work handed the federal Environmental Protection Agency a valuable inventory of special problems and special concerns surrounding wetlands in the Great Basin.

"Many of our wetlands are isolated, more than perhaps anywhere in the United States," Qualls said.

What Bowman and Vittori did was measure the number of wetlands lost, count small and isolated springs statewide and found that many isolated wetlands contribute to recharging local ground water tables.

"It became very clear to us during our research that the Bush administration plans to strip the Clean Water Act of its protectional jurisdiction was more than just a threat to our major waterways," Vittori said.

Changes to the act threaten every state in the United States, the two students concluded.

The paper the students wrote, including an outline of the impacts changes to the act would have on Nevada's wetlands, was sent to Nevada's senators, Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., lobbyists, the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the Nevada Wildlife Federation.

One surprise the students discovered during their research was the complexity of protecting waterways and wetlands. So many laws, ordinances, treaties and acts are in place that do not necessarily work with the Clean Water Act, Vittori said.

In the Las Vegas Wash alone, 28 federal, state and local agencies were in charge of different aspects of the wetlands, such as water quality, flood control, sediment control and wildlife. That changed in the late 1990s when the Southern Nevada Water Authority assumed responsibility for restoring the marshes and for water quality.

While conducting research, the two science students contacted environmentalists, university professors, state lobbyists and local news agencies.