Wetlands, the vegetated aquatic ecosystems that include areas such as bogs, marshes, swamps, and priarie potholes, are now recognized as some of the most productive natural areas in the world!
They are habitat for waterfowl and other wildlife, fish and shellfish. Humans also use wetlands for a variety of reasons, many of which are listed below.
But we have only begun to recognize their irreplaceable ecological
values: wetlands have long been misunderstood and abused. Historically, Americans,
believing wetlands as useless swamps, drained, filled, channeled, and polluted them -
destroying more than half the original
200 million acres of wetlands in the lower 48 states.
Wetlands offer so much! Take a look!
Flood Control: Often called natural sponges, wetlands help control flood waters by absorbing water during heavy rainfall then slowly releasing it downstream. This was explained earlier in HYDROLOGY.
Erosion Control: Because they are located between bodies of water and high ground, wetlands buffer shorelines against erosion. Wetlands plants also bind soil woth there roots and help to absorb the impacts from wave action on a coast.
Fish and Wildlife: Most fish and shellfish we eat live in wetlands when they are young. WILDLIFE also migrates through wetlands' 'linear corridors' - and many endangered species live there, as do birds and mammals of all sizes, from mouse to moose.
Boating: Wetlands are some of our last wilderness areas, attracting canoeist and kayakersto their pristine environments.
Hunting: Wetlands support an annual commercial fur and hide harvest of $300 - 400 million! Migratory birds and waterfowl use the ecosystems for food and shelter, and for breeding and wintering grounds.
Fishing: Nearly all of the fish and shellfish harvested commercially - and half of the recreational catch - depends on wetlands for food and habitat during part of their life cycle.
Fine Arts and Literature: Over the last four centuries naturalists, landscape painters, photographers, and writers have expressed appreciation for the values - both tangible and intangible of American wetlands.
Quality of Life: Home builders value wetlands as natural buffers between land uses, as water features, to create diversity within the development. Many times in large developments builders will incorporate this diversity with storm water flood control.
Water Quality and Availability: Like giant kidneys, wetlands help purify water by processing nutrients, suspended materials, and other pollutants. Wetlands also increase the availability of water by absorbing and adding water in wet seasons, then gradually releasing it during dry periods.
Nutrient Cycling: Nutrients that are essential to all living organisms often move through ecosystems in different physical, chemical, and biologic forms. These are called BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES. Wetlands are some of the most productive areas we know of for these cycles.
Education: Wetlands are living laboratories for both children and adults to learn of ecological, biological, chemical, physical, and geologic processes in nature. It is becoming a trend for schools and communities to develop unused areas of land into education wetland systems.
Recreation: Wetlands are wonderlands. People hunt, fish, crab, hike, walk, and boat there - and those 50 million who observe and photograph birds in wetlands spend nearly $10 billion a year on their hobby.
