A program allowing developers in the U.S. to destroy some wetlands if they create new ones or restore old ones is failing, according to a panel convened by the National Academy of Sciences. The panel found that federal agencies weren’t even tracking the country’s wetlands accurately to see if the losses to development were being compensated. When he created the program in 1989, President Bush the Elder pledged there would be “no net loss” of wetlands. But the panel concluded that the promise was not being met.
