Draining the land via tile, ditches and culverts is very popular. It's done in pursuit of increasing production. While my neighbors drain I build dams to retain water. Four new ones are now being constructed to re-create wetlands that were drained decades ago. These will compliment five that were built on another property 30 years ago. The largest of those needs repair. Muskrats tunneled through the dam and allowed water to flow through it. Eventually that flow eroded the dam with a major wash-out, so it holds much less water. That will now be repaired.
Why wetlands? "Wetlands are among the most productive ecosystems in the world, comparable to rain forests and coral reefs. An immense variety of species of microbes, plants, insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds, fish and mammals can be part of a wetland ecosystem. Climate, landscape shape (topology), geology and the movement and abundance of water help to determine the plants and animals that inhabit each wetland. The complex, dynamic relationships among the organisms inhabiting the wetland environment are called food webs. This is why wetlands in Texas, North Carolina and Alaska differ from one another.
Wetlands can be thought of as "biological supermarkets." They provide great volumes of food that attract many animal species. These animals use wetlands for part of or all of their life-cycle. Dead plant leaves and stems break down in the water to form small particles of organic material called "detritus." This enriched material feeds many small aquatic insects, shellfish and small fish that are food for larger predatory fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds and mammals.
The functions of a wetland and the values of these functions to humans depend on a complex set of relationships between the wetland and the other ecosystems in the watershed. A watershed is a geographic area in which water, sediments and dissolved materials drain from higher elevations to a common low-lying outlet or basin a point on a larger stream, lake, underlying aquifer or estuary." Environmental Protection Agency
Takk for alt,
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Wetland restoration.
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