HOWARD TO HEAD JOINT WETLANDS TASK FORCE

Sen. Jerry Howard, D-Dexter, was named Tuesday to serve as the Senate chairman of a joint House-Senate Wetlands Task Force. The House chairman is Rep. Larry Thomason, D-Kennett.

Howard was appointed by Senate President Pro Tem James Mathewson.

Howard said he looked forward to serving as the Senate chairman and planned to work with Thomason to get an organizational meeting set up next week when the Missouri General Assembly gathers for its annual veto session.

As part of that meeting, the committee likely will hear a report from the staff of the Department of Natural Resources, which is responsible for overseeing federal wetlands policy in the state.

Before accepting the chairmanship, Howard said he resigned his position on the Wetlands Advisory Board of the Department of Natural Resources, which has one senator, one representative, state employees, and non-government people on it.

Howard's position will go to Sen. Wayne Goode, D-Normandy, who also will serve on the joint task force and had asked to be chairman of the panel.

"I volunteered to resign from the advisory board to solve any complications the pro tem might have with some senior Senate members," explained Howard.

He said that DNR ultimately will have to come before the joint committee before it can take any major action on wetlands.

Howard, who sponsored the resolution in the Senate this year that created the advisory board and the joint task force, said Goode was concerned that the bill did not come before the committee on environment that he chairs.

But Howard said the resolution was taken to another committee and that he wanted to chair the task force because of the impact of wetlands policy on Southeast Missouri. About 60 percent of Missouri's wetlands acreage is in this part of the state, Howard said.

New federal guidelines on wetlands require that for every acre of wetlands used for some other purpose another acre must be created. Since much of Southeast Missouri's prime farm land is a drained swamp, both Thomason and Howard have expressed concern over the need to protect Bootheel land.

Officials of the Department of Natural Resources opposed Howard's resolution during the past session of the General Assembly. Thomason handled the bill in the House.

Other senators serving with Howard on the task force are Goode; Mike Lybyer, D-Huggins; John Russell, R-Lebanon; and Fred Dyer, R-St. Charles.