wetland

Earlier this year, state lawmakers proposed a developer-backed bill to remove protections on more than half of Tennessee’s wetlands. That bill was defeated, but another version of the bill is expected by spring.

For some Tennessee state officials, conservation advocates and business leaders, protecting wetlands — semi-aquatic ecosystems like swamps, bogs and bottomland forests — should be the highest priority.

In Tennessee, wetlands cover just 3% of the state, and more than half of these ecosystems may soon be in the path of construction.

The Nature Resources Conservation wants to turn flood lands in Fulton, Hickman, Carlisle, Ballard, and Graves Counties into wetland wilderness. Owners of…