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Written on: July 28th, 2026 in Education and Outreach
By Alison Rogerson, DNREC Wetland Monitoring and Assessment Program
What is the News About?
Senate Bill 9, also known as the Wetlands Stewardship Act, was sponsored and coordinated by Senator Stephanie Hansen and presented to the 153rd Delaware General Assembly in May for consideration. It passed the Senate unanimously and in the last hours of the legislative session on July 1 it passed the House. On July 21, Governor Matt Meyer signed this historic piece of legislation at the Russell Peterson Wildlife Refuge, a sanctuary along the Christina River that contains tidal and freshwater wetlands, making the Wetland Stewardship Act official.
Why is this Act Significant?
Even though every state around Delaware has the authority to regulate activities in both tidal and nontidal wetlands, DNREC’s authority has been largely limited to tidal wetlands only. Limited regulation of freshwater wetlands was historically the hands of the federal government. Many attempts over the past 30 plus years have been made to expand Delaware’s state wetland protection unsuccessfully. The Wetlands Stewardship Act gives DNREC the authority to regulate activities in freshwater wetlands, commits the financial and staffing resources to DNREC necessary to build and run a successful program, tasks DNREC with developing useful and predictable technical resources, and calls for the formation of a stakeholder team that will develop many of the important program details. Unique to this bill is that a group of stakeholders are charged with developing specific recommendations to build out the regulations that DNREC will then follow.
How Did this Come About?
The last earnest attempt at a state freshwater wetland program was in 2013-2014. In 2020, the federal administration restricted the definition of regulated wetlands with the Navigable Waters Protection Rule which left roughly 30,000 acres of privately owned freshwater wetlands in Delaware federally unregulated and vulnerable to conversion and loss. In June 2021 Senator Stephanie Hansen helped pass Senate Joint Resolution 2 which directed DNREC to investigate and report back on the legal, fiscal and administrative requirements to support a comprehensive state program and to report on how many and which wetlands currently lacked federal protection which we did in September 2022.
Shortly after that the Sackett vs. EPA ruling in May 2023 further reduced the jurisdiction of the Waters of the US, and DNREC was asked to update the 2022 report through the Senate Continuing Resolution 86, which required updated calculations on wetland acreage lacking federal protection and revised recommendations for a comprehensive wetland program. Our analysis estimated that the new ruling now left 75,000 acres of freshwater wetlands in Delaware federally unregulated and vulnerable to direct conversion and loss. Recommendations were for a comprehensive state programmatic general wetland process that protects wetlands statewide. These reductions in federal jurisdiction and protection nationwide were seen as a call for states to step up and protect their own resources.
Senator Stephanie Hansen committed herself to the cause and led the charge to develop a piece of legislation that expanded DNREC’s ability to regulate and protect freshwater wetlands. The process to draft bipartisan legislation required input from a wide range of stakeholders including the environmental, agricultural and development communities. A long list of groups met regularly for over two years to learn, discuss and sometimes argue about how to protect wetland resources in a way that is predictable, effective and balanced with thoughtful economic advances. The result of this long, detailed, inclusive process was support (or lack of opposition) of the bill from all the major stakeholder groups. This bill did what so many before it could not by getting over the finish line, and it required patience, collaboration, compromise and endurance.
What Happens Now?
Today we celebrate the final step in Senate Bill 9 becoming official but, as many of us know, our work is not over. A Regulatory Advisory Committee comprised of 25 invited members from the environmental, agriculture and development communities will meet monthly for the next year to work out regulatory details on how DNREC will implement the expanded program. We need to coordinate with federal agencies such as the EPA and Army Corps. Our wetland program in DNREC is already working on the process to update statewide wetland maps to support decision making, as well as developing online and in-field evaluation tools that can help landowners and regulators alike in determining the appropriate permitting path for each case. DNREC will expand its team of staff to provide an efficient permitting experience and will evaluate its performance after three years to identify necessary tweaks. We are excited and proud to take part in this process and know that we arrived here through the dedication of so many.
Written on: July 17th, 2026 in Education and Outreach
By Olivia Allread, DNREC Wetland Monitoring and Assessment Program When you think of South America, your head probably goes to the Amazon rainforest. The lush greenery, humidity in the air, species galore. Rightfully so, as it’s one of the most famous ecosystems known. But just South of the Amazon, at the center of the continent, […]
Written on: July 17th, 2026 in Education and Outreach
By Lenore Tedesco, PhD, Executive Director of The Wetlands Institute Coastal wetlands are ecosystems and dynamic geomorphic features that help define much of the mid-Atlantic’s natural environment, especially across Delaware and New Jersey. They provide critical habitat and breeding grounds for marine life and coastal birds and protect the coastlines from storm waves and flooding. […]
Written on: May 26th, 2026 in Education and Outreach, Natural Resources
By Olivia Allread, DNREC’s Wetland Monitoring and Assessment Program Picture yourself walking through a forested freshwater wetland or a steamy tidal marsh. As you’re trudging through hues of fern, pickle, or chestnut, you see a light pink color in the distance. When getting closer, you see more of this stark color along stems, and boom […]
Written on: May 26th, 2026 in Education and Outreach, Wetland Animals
By Alison Stouffer, DNREC’s Wetland Monitoring and Assessment Program Take a moment to visualize a wetland scene. Imagine the plants that surround you. Imagine the water that is present. Now imagine the animals that might call this wetland home. Some of the animals you may have envisioned might include birds, muskrats, fish, and turtles – […]
Written on: March 23rd, 2026 in Natural Resources
By Alison Rogerson, DNREC’s Wetland Monitoring and Assessment Program After a long, snowy winter, it seems that spring is finally here. The longer days and springtime thaw gets many of us itching to get outside to work in the backyard. After months of looking out the window at last year’s brown remnants, we can’t wait […]
Written on: March 20th, 2026 in Education and Outreach, Wetland Research
By Olivia Allread, DNREC’s Wetland Monitoring and Assessment Program Deserts and water; the two don’t go together. Low precipitation, high evaporation rates, sandy soil, rain shadow effect – there are many factors that affect the lack of water in a desert environment. But across the American Southwest and into Northern Mexico lies a habitat that […]
Written on: March 20th, 2026 in Education and Outreach, Natural Resources
By Tyler Dreiblatt, DNREC’s Division of Parks and Recreation We humans often have a hard time understanding the value of our natural resources. Unless something is pretty or has an obvious use, we tend to ignore it. Take the salt marshes surrounding Burton Island. Once dismissed as a dirty breeding ground for mosquitos, they are […]
Written on: December 22nd, 2025 in Education and Outreach, Natural Resources
By Olivia Allread, DNREC’s Wetland Monitoring and Assessment Program Sanctuary. All seek it, some search, and a lucky few can find it. As we know, these “sacred” spaces can come in many different forms and represent an untouched meaningfulness which is irreplaceable. One of a kind so to speak. At the far end of the […]
Written on: December 22nd, 2025 in Wetland Animals
By Alison Stouffer, DNREC’s Wetland Monitoring and Assessment Program If you are like me, you have likely been driving down a rural road, paddling through a tidal wetland, or going for a stroll through a state park and seen a furry, brown animal that had you doing a double take. That wasn’t a weird looking […]
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