What are Wetlands for?

“But what is it FOR?” My dad asked the same question a third time, trying to derive something from my first two answers that made sense of the “wasteland” we were driving by. I always ogled this particular wetlands area, even as a “drive-by”, to look for black terns, great blue herons, blue-winged teal, sandhill cranes and other great wildlife that used it either for breeding or during migration. As my Dad and I drove by and he first asked its purpose, I assumed it was just a small-talk question from Visiting Dad, so I told him it’s a wetlands area, and is wonderful for wildlife. “Yes, but it doesn’t look like it’s being used for anything. What’s it for?” he asked again. I spewed more details on the wildlife, and threw in the value of wetlands for flood control, figuring since he lived near the Mississippi River he would value anything that could reduce flood damage. When he repeated the question a third time, clearly frustrated by my inability to understand basic economics, I finally understood – what direct, tangible, countable, dollars-and-cents benefit could he or society GAIN from this land? What was it FOR? ”Oh,” I said, as though everything else I had mentioned was just fluff, “well, it’s used as a nursery for northern pike.” Pay dirt at last – he was pleased that the land wasn’t going to “waste” after all.

If your property has been damaged by floodwaters, your well contaminated by nitrates, or your riverside cabin is crumbling off an eroding bank, words like “flood control, soil erosion, and water purification” strike you as serious benefits provided by wetlands. Throw in “wildlife habitat” and it’s a no-brainer that wetlands are valuable, right? But historically they have been viewed as a problem to be solved, a nemesis to progress and development, and land that might someday be “reclaimed” into something worthwhile.

The foremost way to reclaim such land was to drain it, using pipes, culverts and roadside ditches to move all that water “away” as fast as possible. The problem is the water doesn’t just go “away” – it inundates everything downstream, and carries tons of soil with it. Wetlands regulate water flow by spreading it out, slowing it down and releasing it more slowly into rivers, streams and lakes. This slowing-down process reduces soil erosion and silt-load, and stabilizes water temperature, preventing the fish kills that can occur when large quantities of too-hot water (from parking lots, rooftops and roadways) are quickly channeled into a colder body of water. Cattail marshes and wet meadows, in particular, also filter nitrates, pesticides and other toxins from water, sending cleaner water downstream and into underground aquifers.

For myself, wetlands, whether they be swamps, marshes, bogs, fens or lake-plain prairies, will still be most noticeably valuable as havens for wildlife, providing food, nesting areas and migration rest stops for literally thousands of species of birds, mammals, fish, frogs, snakes, turtles, insects. . . you get the picture. If you ask me, that’s what wetlands are FOR.

- Janea Little, CNC Senior Naturalist