Let's Shine on 9
A Delaware Project series introducing nine of our wetland neighbors — and the bill that could help keep them here.
About this series
First, to anyone surprised to have received TWO The Delaware Project newsletters in TWO days, here’s why: This one is the background, the part you’ll want to bookmark for reference, as you read the three weekly installments. This first one, by the way, is already out with Let’s Shine on 9: Meet Your First Three Neighbors.
Now, about the whole series…
“Let’s Shine on 9” introduces nine Delaware native species whose lives depend on the non-tidal wetlands now under consideration in Delaware Senate Bill 9.
The series is hosted by the Bethany Beach Firefly (Photuris bethaniensis) — the firefly in our masthead and a species first described from Bethany Beach, Delaware, strongly associated with our coastal swales and the closest thing Delaware has to a flagship firefly. Beginning Thursday, May 21, 2026, she introduces her friends, one at a time, three a week, over three weeks. Each one lives in a kind of wetland that Delaware law leaves largely unprotected — but that SB 9 would help safeguard.
This page exists so any reader can start the series at any time, with full context, and follow Senate Bill 9 as it moves through the General Assembly.
The Sackett gap
In May 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Sackett v. EPA, narrowing the federal definition of “waters of the United States” under the Clean Water Act. The ruling limited federal jurisdiction to wetlands with a continuous surface connection to traditional navigable waters.
That decision opened a quiet but significant hole in our environmental protections. Many of Delaware’s non-tidal wetlands — Delmarva bays, isolated forested flats, sea-level fens, and the cedar swamps that don’t drain directly to a navigable river — no longer qualify for federal protection under the Clean Water Act. Both DNREC and SB 9’s own findings put the gap at roughly 75,000 acres of Delaware wetland.
Delaware’s own Wetlands Act regulates tidal wetlands directly. For non-tidal wetlands, it covers only those of 400 contiguous acres or more. Most of Delaware’s non-tidal wetlands are nowhere near that size; many are under a single acre. Some smaller wetlands may still be protected through local zoning, voluntary conservation agreements, or other indirect means — but the core regulatory framework leaves them outside state oversight. According to DNREC, about 1,500 acres of Delaware’s Delmarva bays — roughly 25% — have no regulatory protection at all.
Senate Bill 9 would help close that gap at the state level.
Five kinds of wetland
DNREC recognizes five categories of non-tidal wetlands in Delaware:
Flats — wet flatwood forests, sometimes called “winter wet woods.” The most common type in Delaware, and the least recognized. They look like ordinary forest most of the year. Water sits at or just below the surface in winter and spring.
Depressions — small, often elliptical pools that fill with rain and snowmelt in winter and dry out in summer. Includes the Delmarva bays (also called Coastal Plain Seasonal Ponds) and the inner-dune depression meadows where the Bethany Beach Firefly lives.
Riverine — floodplain wetlands along the sides of our non-tidal creeks and rivers. They absorb flood water before it reaches homes, roads, and downstream property.
Swamps — wetlands dominated by woody shrubs and trees. Atlantic white cedar swamps, bald cypress swamps, and black ash seepage swamps all live here.
Fens — peat-land wetlands with deep, acidic, nutrient-poor soils. Delaware’s rarest non-tidal wetland category. One of the best-documented Delaware fens, at Angola Neck, has already been lost to saltwater intrusion.
Wetlands of all kinds — tidal and non-tidal together — cover nearly a quarter of Delaware’s land area. Non-tidal freshwater wetlands make up more than half of that wetland acreage. According to a 2018 DNREC survey, more than 60% of Delawareans don’t know how close they live to one.
Find a wetland near you
DNREC keeps a public Wetland Finder map showing where mapped wetlands occur across Delaware. The map reflects likely wetland presence based on aerial photo interpretation and field assessment, not a formal property-line delineation — but it is a strong way to see what is often hidden in plain sight.
Open the Delaware Wetland Finder →
Enter your address. Find out what kind of wetland you live closest to. You are almost certainly within a mile of one. Most Delawareans are.
The Fleet
Host:
Bethany Beach Firefly (Photuris bethaniensis) — interdunal swales and inner-dune depression meadows. Delaware-listed endangered and proposed for federal threatened listing under the Endangered Species Act. First described from Bethany Beach; also documented in coastal Maryland and Virginia.
The Nine:
Spotted turtle (Clemmys guttata) — Flats
Eastern tiger salamander (Ambystoma tigrinum) — Delmarva bays
Rose coreopsis (Coreopsis rosea) — Delmarva bays
Dwarf wedgemussel (Alasmidonta heterodon) — Riverine
Atlantic white cedar (Chamaecyparis thyoides) — Atlantic white cedar swamps
Mysterious lantern firefly (Photuris mysticalampas) — Atlantic white cedar swamps
Hessel’s hairstreak (Callophrys hesseli) — Atlantic white cedar swamps
Bog turtle (Glyptemys muhlenbergii) — Shallow, mucky, spring-fed and seepage wetlands
Barking treefrog (Hyla gratiosa) — Fens
Each species links to its installment as the series unfolds.
A note on the Fleet: These habitat labels are narrative pairings, not exhaustive species descriptions. Most of these species use multiple wetland types over their lives. The barking treefrog in particular breeds in Coastal Plain seasonal ponds — but DNREC’s public-facing Fens page features her, and this series uses her to help tell the story of Delaware’s rare peatland and seepage wetlands. The labels are doorways, not boundaries.
Where SB 9 stands
Last updated: Thursday, May 21, 2026
Bill: Senate Bill 9 — An Act to Amend Title 7 of the Delaware Code Relating to the Protection of Wetlands (the Wetlands Stewardship Act)
Primary sponsor: Sen. Stephanie Hansen (D-Middletown), Chair of the Senate Environment, Energy & Transportation Committee
Additional sponsors: Sen. Bryan Townsend (D-Newark), Rep. Debra Heffernan (D-Bellefonte)
Introduced: March 31, 2026
Senate Environment, Energy & Transportation Committee (April 15, 2026): Reported out with 7 Favorable of 8 members
Senate Finance Committee (May 20, 2026): Reported out with 2 Favorable, 2 On Its Merits of 6 members
Current status: Reported out of Senate Finance on May 20, 2026; awaiting Senate floor consideration. The next typical step is placement on the Senate Ready List.
Next steps: Senate floor consideration → House committee and floor consideration → Governor.
First-year fiscal impact: $765,419 in recurring General Fund costs plus $967,600 in one-time startup costs in FY2027, per the Office of the Controller General’s fiscal note. By FY2029, the fiscal note projects net recurring General Fund costs of $1,665,609 after anticipated permit-fee offsets. Permit-fee revenue is estimated at up to $247,500 annually beginning in FY2028.
Read the bill on legis.delaware.gov →
This block updates as the bill moves.
How to help
Three things you can do, in order of how much time they take:
1. Send a message to your legislators. Resistbot makes it simple. Click the link, edit the message if you like, and send. It takes about two minutes.
→ Send a message about SB 9 via Resistbot
Or text SIGN PXKMMG to 50409.
2. Visit a public wetland. Trap Pond State Park (bald cypress swamp). Blackbird State Forest (Delmarva bays). Ted Harvey Wildlife Area (flats). Stay on marked trails. Notice what these places protect — and what is at stake if they fail.
3. Share this series. Each installment is built to travel. The graphics are designed for Facebook, Instagram, and group threads. The species only matter to as many people as meet them.
Sources and methodology
This series draws on:
DNREC’s published technical and public-facing materials, including the Delaware Wildlife Action Plan (DEWAP), the Wetland Monitoring and Assessment Program (WMAP) blog and watershed assessments, and the Environmental Perspectives non-tidal wetland portal.
Peer-reviewed scientific literature, including Whigham et al. (2007) on Nanticoke watershed wetland condition, McAvoy & Bowman (2002) on Coastal Plain Pond herbaceous communities, and the Delaware Natural Heritage Program’s rare species inventories.
The 2018 DNREC Landowner Survey.
Recent investigative reporting from Spotlight Delaware, including Karl Baker’s “Salt of the Earth” series on the loss of Cherry Walk Fen.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service materials for federal species status and the proposed rule for the Bethany Beach Firefly.
The Office of the Controller General’s fiscal note and fee impact note for SB 9.
Consultation with regional naturalists, conservation organizations, and Mt. Cuba Center.
Every claim about species status, wetland ecology, and regulatory framework is traceable to a published source. Individual installments link directly to the sources used for each species.
Credits and acknowledgments
Plant photography for Let’s Shine on 9 is courtesy of Mt. Cuba Center (Hockessin, Delaware), with our gratitude for express permission to use their work in this series.
Firefly photography by Radim Schreiber | FireflyExperience.org, used by permission.
Historical botanical illustrations are drawn from public-domain sources including Britton & Brown’s Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States and Canada (1913).
Additional images sourced from the USFWS Multimedia Library, the Biodiversity Heritage Library, and individual photographers credited within each installment.
The Bethany Beach Firefly serves as both the masthead of The Delaware Project and the host of this series.