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Swamps and Bogs. It conjures up visions of mist rising from dark, gloomy, mysterious places. For centuries “wetlands” were places to hide; to lose your way; or be eaten by monsters that lurked there. In fact, we have now discovered that wetlands have many purposes and provide a multitude of benefits to humans and the environment. With all the news recently about flooding in the Mid-West we need to be reminded that wetlands are natural buffers against flooding. This post at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is focused on Wisconsin’s wetlands but the points made apply to the Mid-Atlantic as well.

Save and expand wetlands to help state with flood control

By LAURA ENGLAND

Posted: June 21, 2008

The recent historic rainfall and flooding in southern Wisconsin came far too soon on the heels of flooding last August. Then, citizens and organizations called for changes in the way we manage our landscapes and waters, but these calls were forgotten once the mud dried.

For the health of our state economy and the health and safety of our citizenry, we must act now, with major state commitments to prevent the recurrence of severe flooding. Wetlands are a critical component of the long-term solution.

No matter who you are or where you live, wetlands affect your life. Like sponges, they soak up and store rain that runs off of our lands. Wetlands include marshes, swamps, bogs, fens and sedge meadows, all with the capacity to store rainwater, an economically significant function that is important to human health and safety. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, one acre of wetlands, on average, can store 1 million gallons of water.

Unfortunately, Wisconsin has lost nearly 50% of its original 10 million wetland acres due to draining, ditching and filling to make way for farmland, development and other land uses. We have lost 5 trillion gallons of storage capacity that wetlands provided naturally and free of charge. This loss equates to the amount of water that would cover Lambeau Field to a depth of more than 2,200 miles. It is also the equivalent of 7.6 million Olympic-sized swimming pools or 8,333 Lake Deltons.

Wetlands are flood prevention workhorses, but we are asking too much of the remaining wetlands. The severity of current floods is the not-so-surprising result of a perfect storm of human actions, including reduced water storage capacity resulting from wetland loss; increased runoff from paved and hard surfaces, which converts rainfall into runoff and delivers larger and more rapid floods to lakes, streams and rivers; and more frequent heavy rains in the Midwest, an expected consequence of climate change.

It is clear that Wisconsin’s remaining wetlands are in over their heads.

It is worth noting that Iowa, which has suffered far greater flood damage than Wisconsin, has lost more than 90% of its original wetlands through draining and filling. While there certainly are other factors that made recent floods more extreme in Iowa, the severe lack of wetland storage capacity was undoubtedly a significant factor.

Will Wisconsin remain on a path toward Iowa, with continued wetlands losses, or will we dedicate significant resources toward achieving the state Department of Natural Resource’s strategy on wetlands, reversing the loss?

Annually, we still destroy about 95 wetland acres each year through private land projects (the average between 2001 and 2006) and 175 acres for Department of Transportation road projects (1990 to 2005 average). That’s an annual loss of 270 million gallons of storage capacity — more than 400 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

The location of wetlands also is critical — wetlands must be distributed throughout watersheds for effective flood prevention. The more water storage capacity higher up within a watershed, the greater the probability of preventing flooding in major rivers and lakes located at the low points within watersheds. Studies of wetland mitigation, a practice in which the loss of wetland acres on a building site is offset by the creation or restoration of wetland acres elsewhere, have shown that mitigation consistently fails to replace wetland functions.

Wisconsin needs a paradigm shift to plan its communities around existing water resources rather than to engineer waters to fit around our communities. The latter is considerably more costly and makes our communities more vulnerable to natural disasters. In addition to preventing floods, wetlands provide natural water purification, groundwater recharge, shoreline protection and wildlife habitat and support our economy through recreational activities like hunting, fishing, paddling and birding.

Wisconsin Wetlands Association urges concerted planning efforts to determine where wetlands are needed most for future flood prevention; to develop a state goal for wetland acres to be restored and make significant financial commitments to this goal; to provide incentives for private landowners to hold and restore wetlands that provide flood prevention benefits to their communities; and to deepen the commitment to preventing wetland loss and to ensure effective replacement of wetland functions when destruction is unavoidable.

Wisconsin is in grave need of more wetland horsepower. We no longer can afford the consequences of the status quo; it is time to make a serious commitment to increasing wetland acreage.

Laura England is outreach programs director for the Wisconsin Wetlands Association of Madison.

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