Being a part of past wetland restorations has helped me learn how essential a wetland really is. The wetland does not just help humans; it helps all types of animals at the same time. While it helps purify water for humans and reduces flooding, it also is a home to a wide array of birds, fish, mammals, and amphibians. Though numerous communities believe that a wetland is not important, it is a crucial part of our daily life.
Wetlands are slowly decreasing size across America and few people understand what a wetland does for the community. “Wetlands can be found on all of the continents, except Antarctica”(Terry 2) Wetlands can be found all over which means the decrease of them could mean drastic changes in a city or community. Betsy Yankowiak, Director of Preserves and Programs for Little River Wetlands Project says, “Wetlands are important for three main reasons: flood retention, water cleansing, and biodiversity. The US Fish and Wildlife Service estimates one acre of wetlands can hold up to 1.5 million gallons of flood water. … The process of infiltration allows pollutants to be removed from the water molecule. Also, over 1/3 of all species on the federally endangered species list depend on wetland habitats for survival.” When rain continues to fall in a community a wetlands job is to contain the water and absorb it. Without this important role of the wetland, towns would be flooded and homes and ecosystems would become destroyed. “The wetland plants purify the water by providing a natural filtration system traps harmful sediments and pollutants” (Terry 13). Not only does the wetland contain the water it also filters it, so polluted water does not go back into the community. “In addition to a number of plant species, a variety ...
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...ver 12,000 participate in our free nature education programs” (Yankowiak). This is a great example of a successful restoration because the marsh is growing. Also, that word is getting out about the wetland restorations, so more and more people are coming to help a great cause. “”Not all authors agree that wetlands can be engineered to match natural ecosystems” (Zedler). This means that even though organizations do different steps to complete the wetland restoration it does not mean that it will always turn out great. Now that there are solutions to the decrease in wetlands more people can join in and help with restorations.
Wetlands are an important part of a community and can be helped even if it is decreasing in size. There are many different ways in which you can help your local wetland. Look for community projects that allow you to help with local restorations.
I live in Houma, Louisiana so I have tons of experience with the bayou region of South Louisiana. Everywhere I look in Houma there is a bayou, which is a good and bad thing. With a bayou comes many great things such as Egrets, Spanish Moss, etc. The bad thing about seeing many bayous is that it is a constant reminder that one day, Houma might be a part of the Gulf of Mexico. Also my dad’s side of the family is from Chauvin and Golden Meadow which is not too far from where the real damage of eroding wetlands is. I go down to Chauvin sometimes to visit my Nanny and her husband. I always see houses on stilts because of possible flooding that could come if a hurricane passes through. One of the issues that Mike Tidwell caught my interest was that the wildlife in bayous will one day be diminished into smaller numbers. That is because the eroding land causes brown shrimp, crabs, and other seafood to die out. Many residents in South Louisiana make a living off of seafood so to have most of that industry die out will hurt the economy of South Louisiana. I just found this issue very interesting.
The first mitigation banking guidance was released in 1995 by the EPA and Corps of Engineers. The most recent wetland mitigation banking guidance was released in 2008. The idea behind both wetland mitigation banking and conservation banking is to provide compensation for unavoidable impacts to resources prior to the environmental impact taking place (FWS, 2003). Based on the rules set forth in section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act and section 404 of the Clean Water Act, wetland impacts are reduced by using the following sequence of steps: avoiding impacts, minimizing impacts, and as a last resort, mitigating for impacts. Although the Corps has enforced a mitigation policy to reg...
Fifty percent of the original wetlands doesn’t even exist today. The water supply in the Everglades is changing and that has affected the Everglades in many ways. For one, population is decreasing and mankind needs to restore it somehow. Next, the Everglades are in need of some money to do that restoration, but where will they get it from? Last, the water supply is poisoning the humanity around it with much bacteria and many bad and dangerous elements. The Everglades water supply affected it in fixing the Everglades and wildlife.
...n, the Louisiana wetlands are an extremely valuable asset to the State of Louisiana and the United States. The continual loss of Louisiana wetlands has the potential to have an immensely negative effect on the economy at a state and national level. Over 2 million people live in the Louisiana coastal parishes (Field et al., 1991). The majority of people living on the Louisiana coast make their living from things that are directly related to the wetlands. The Louisiana wetlands make up the largest wetland community in America and is being lost at a rate greater than the other wetland communities in the country. The suggested strategies that are being taken into consideration could be helpful but it seems that the State of Louisiana is not as concerned as it should be given the future consequences and much like climate change coastal erosion is not being taken serious.
They also look after the quality of coastal waters by watering down, sifting, and settling deposits, left-over nutrients and contaminants. They are highly productive ecosystems and provide habitats and act as nurseries for all manner of life.
This is a result from the new levee system. This system prevents the natural ways of sediment re-depositing along the riverbank and wetlands. The levees lead the sediment to deposit off the continental shelf in the Gulf of Mexico. (15) This adds to the loss of wetlands along the coast. Wetlands are important to the economy in more than one way. They serve as homes for fish which fishermen catch then sell and they protect the mainland from getting the full effect of storm surge during a hurricane. “Every 2.7 miles of wetlands absorbs one foot of storm surge” (1.2). Without wetlands and barrier islands working as a barrier, the mainland could experience even more damage during
The area has been turned into a wildlife preserve to help maintain those ecosystems. The
The Everglades, classified as a wetland or a "transition zone" can support plant and animal life unlike any other place. Wetlands are an important resource for endangered species and "that more than one third of the United States' threatened and endangered species live only in wetlands." Says Elaine Mao, the author of Wetlands and Habitat Loss. People have started to notice the importance and the role of wetlands like the Everglades and how they are valuable and essential for ecosystems to live. Wetlands provide so many kinds of plants, mammals, reptiles, birds, and
Ducks Unlimited claims that, “In some carefully targeted instances, DU will employ the extension process to work with private landowners to provide both economic and ecological sustainability.” The people that have private wetlands, and don’t have the money to fix them, DU will go to their land and make their land duck-livable and suitable for hunting. *Not only is state land good for duck also private owner will have good and safe land for the ducks. “For over six decades, Ducks Unlimited (DU) has maintained a singleness of purpose that has guided the organization to become the leading waterfowl and wetlands conservation entity in North America. Dynamic and responsive leadership by staff and volunteers, working together, has assured that DU’s work evolved in response to the ever-changing pressures on waterfowl and the habitats upon which they depend throughout their annual cycle”(DU). This is what the people want to see and the people that helps reach DU’s goal even more. They’re not out in the private land just yet, but once they hit their goal they’re not just going to stop at state land. “Canada, a non-profit wetland conservation organization, will announce today that after 20 years of repeated attempts, it has purchased the Chemainus Estuary, located 12 kilometres north of Duncan”(Chemainus Estuary). This is a piece of land that DU was trying to
The water supply of the Everglades has been getting worse and worse, causing the quantity and diversity of wildlife to decrease. From 1905 to 1910, people started to do construction on the Everglades cutting off the flow of fresh water to it. According to the article “Past and Present: The Florida Everglades”, “As a result [of cutting off the flow of water], the quantity and diversity of the wetlands’ [Everglades] wildlife decreased.” This shows that the doing of humans a 100 years ago has affected the Everglades in a bad way. The
The Disney Wildlife Preserve is a 12,000-acre preserve for The Nature Conservancy. It is home to rare and endangered species, such as scrub jays and gopher tortoises, as well as bobcats, quail, wood storks, and black bears. The Disney Wilderness Preserve has a unique land mitigation program that unites the public and the private sectors throughout Florida. This program states that any construction in Florida that disturbs wetlands must be “mitigated” by restoring the wetlands disturbed by construction or creating new ones. The first attempt of this land mitigation program was not as successful as hoped because the wetlands were still being destroyed and just moved to a different location. “So Disney bought and turned over the former Walker Ranch- a wild parcel of land that had been slated to become a community of 25,000 with golf courses and a marina- to The Nature Conservancy” (Carlton 94). By doing this, Disney was able to save an important part of Florida’s wild wetlands for future generations. Along with The Disney Wildlife Preserve, the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund (DWCF) is another important component in Disney’s efforts to not only be a protector of the planet but an educator of children in the teachings of the values of conservation. The money that is behind the DWCF is used for financial support
By conserving the ecosystem, the animal population will incline. Recent reports of record duck numbers throughout much of their continent-wide breeding range is proof that to manage wildlife you need to manage their ecosystems. Wet weather, combined with abundant nesting cover provided by the federal Conservation Reserve Program, has shown that wetland and grassland ecosystems are what make or break duck populations. The same is true for all other species, game and non-game. R. Holmes.
This paper introduces the environmental concerns of the loss of coastal wetlands. The paper will discuss the significance of wetlands and the devastation that is occurring because of human activity. Wetlands are an essential element of our environment both ecological and societal; conservation will be essential for the preservation of these precious ecosystems.
Wetlands are highly productive ecosystems. Wetlands include marshes, estuaries, bogs, fens, swamps, deltas, shallow seas, and floodplains. Wetland habitats support a vast range of plant and animal life, and serve a variety of important functions, which include water regime regulation, flood control, erosion control, nursery areas for fishes, fish production, recreation, plant production, aesthetic enjoyment, and wildlife habitat. Wetlands account for about 6% of the global land area and are among the most valuable environmental resources.
NEED AND PURPOSE FOR CONSERVATION OF BIODIVERSITY Biodiversity conservation is about saving life on Earth in all its forms and keeping natural ecosystems functioning and healthy. Biodiversity is being depleted by the loss of habitat, fragmentation of habitat, over exploitation of resources, human sponsored ecosystems, climatic changes, pollution, invasive exotic species, diseases, shifting cultivation, poaching of wildlife etc. Since the human beings are enjoying all the benefits from biodiversity, they should take proper care for the preservation of biodiversity in all its forms and should prevent the degradation as well as the destruction of the habitats, thereby maintaining the biodiversity at its optimum level which will ultimately conserve the biodiversity for the future generation. The United Nations designated 2011-2020 as the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity. In biodiversity, each species, no matter how big or small, has an important role to play in ecosystems.