Bill Bartnick 1
The burgeoning regulatory climate, especially over the last decade, has been a causal factor in raising agricultural "awareness" regarding natural resource issues. Better regulatory sophistication and environmental compliance therein is being achieved - more notably in the larger ag sectors - either through internal staffing (appointments) or by interfacing with the engineering and environmental consulting community. Moreover, agriculture has, by design, fostered a rather extensive network of both federal and state trade associations, farm bureau offices, university involvement/extension agents, various lobbying groups, and specific federal and state agricultural lead agencies (USDA, FDACS) to help facilitate understanding and the dissemination of information to agriculturalists. Recent literature reviews suggest that inherent land management philosophies/rule participation options as well as public perception concerns are seemingly key driving forces towards effecting and further embracing change and the notion of "Comprehensive Wetlands Management" for blending design considerations into the agricultural landscape. Wetland values and functions are illuminated in the context of productivity, overall benefits, possible residual profits, and the overarching need to develop long-term sustainability as the agricultural engineer/planner is faced with looking at phased profitability based on perpetual land use for perennial agronomic crops. Alternatives to formal surface water permitting/design are introduced for passive settings. Pre-design precautions are discussed to help preclude persistent "after-the-fact" problems; namely, nutrient loadings, pretreatment, overinundation in treatment trains for isolated wetlands, and perceived impacts of nuisance and exotic species competition.
