In 2023, the US Supreme Court’s majority ruled in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency that only wetlands that are “indistinguishable” from federally protected waters “due to a continuous surface connection” are federally protected. This study estimates the potential impact of interpretations of the ruling on federal wetlands protections, using a qualitative measure of wetland “wetness” as a proxy for the new requirement. An estimated area ranging from ~17 million acres (19%) to nearly all 90 million acres of nontidal wetlands in the conterminous United States could be without federal protections, and variability in state protections creates hotspots of risk. The high-level estimates provided here represent a first step toward understanding the long-term impacts of Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency on federal wetlands protections and highlight the uncertainty introduced by the ruling.

中文翻译：

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湿地必须有多湿润才能在后萨克特时代的美国得到联邦保护？


2023 年，美国最高法院在萨克特诉环境保护署案中裁定，只有“由于连续的地表连接”而与联邦保护水域“无法区分”的湿地才受到联邦保护。本研究使用湿地“湿度”的定性衡量标准作为新要求的代表，估计了对裁决的解释对联邦湿地保护的潜在影响。据估计，美国本土的面积从 ~1700 万英亩 （19%） 到几乎所有 9000 万英亩的非潮汐湿地可能没有联邦保护，而各州保护的可变性造成了风险热点。此处提供的高水平估计值是了解萨克特诉环境保护署案对联邦湿地保护的长期影响的第一步，并强调了该裁决带来的不确定性。