Get Freshwater Wetlands Protection Act Rules. Proposed Amendments

The Wetlands Act of 1970 required the creation of maps showing the boundaries of all coastal wetlands within New Jersey from the Raritan Bay south. These coastal wetlands maps were completed in the early 1970s.

As outlined in CHAPTER 2, there are three major objectives for the protection and management of wetlands: Protect and maintain water quantity; ◆ Protect and maintain water quality; and, ◆ Protect and maintain habitats and species.

The State Legislature passed The Freshwater Wetlands Act (PDF) (Environmental Conservation Law Article 24) in 1975 with the intent to preserve, protect and conserve freshwater wetlands and their benefits, consistent with the general welfare and beneficial economic, social and agricultural development of the state.

The objective of the Federal Policy on Wetland Conservation is: “to promote the conservation of Canada's wetlands to sustain their ecological and socio-eco- nomic functions, now and in the future.” Two key commitments include: (a) no net loss of wetland functions on federal lands and waters through mitigation of all ...

The construction of new single family houses and additions and improvement to existing ones within freshwater wetlands, transition areas, and/or State open waters requires a Freshwater Wetlands (FWW) permit or a FWW Transition Area waiver.

The Legislature therefore determines that in this State, where pressures for commercial and residential development define the pace and pattern of land use, it is in the public interest to establish a program for the systematic review of activities in and around freshwater wetland areas designed to provide ...

The Freshwater Wetlands Protection Act was passed by the New Jersey Legislature on July 1, 1987, to "preserve the purity and integrity of freshwater wetlands from random, unnecessary or undesirable alteration or disturbance." This statute extended state and federal protection of waterways.

New Jersey's wetlands consist largely of emergent estuarine wetlands (salt, brackish, slightly braskish and oligohaline), intertidal flats, and lacustrine wetlands associated with lakes and reservoirs.