Wondrous Wetlands | Whiteboard

Are you tired of how land is just so dry and firm? Are rivers and lakes too wet for you? What if there was some in-between place that had the best of both worlds? Well good news, it exists in a utopia known as wetlands! Wetlands are low-lying areas of land where water settles, gathers, and stays at or near

the surface of the soil. Wetlands are kind of an in-between place for water: if water runs off then it’s just regular old “land”, but if the water’s too deep then it might be a pond or a lake. Wetlands come with some really great benefits. Wetlands collect floodwater, help stem the flow, and slowly release so it doesn’t do

so much damage. And in fact, for this very reason, developers who convert wetlands for human use are now required to offset their impact with water retention systems. Wetlands save up to $30 billion a year in flood-related repair costs in the United States alone. Wetlands are also a great nursery for wildlife. Up to 43% of North America’s threatened or endangered species depend on wetlands for

survival in the early stages of their life. Wetlands are rich in nutrients, and increase the food supply all the way up the food chain. Wetlands also act like huge filter for our water. Within wetlands, there live lots bacteria and other microorganisms that are continually breaking down matter. In addition to organic matter, wetlands trap oil, nitrogen, phosphorus, sewage and other

pollutants. Wetlands save cities and towns up to $1.6 billion a year in clean-up costs to water supplies. But the economic value of wetlands hasn’t always been recognized. People who drained and filled wetlands in the past felt they were reclaiming the land for more “useful purposes” like cropland, pastures; roads, homes, businesses; waterways, canals and reservoirs.