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Wetlands are crucial for wildlife habitat and the protection of people and their property. Thus we need to stop draining the wetlands before they're gone. There will be dire consequences if we don't.

When wetlands are drained a habitat for wildlife is lost. Many animals need them to survive and can't live anywhere else. Thus some animals that depend on the wetlands may be displaced or even disappear forever. Many amphibians, which are already rare in many places, could be candidates for extinction.

Another consequence which directly affects people is flooding. Without the wetlands which act like a sponge, floods become more frequent and severe especially in coastal areas. For example, the flooding in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina was so severe because the wetlands have been extensively drained. If the wetlands had been there the flooding might not have been so catastrophic. Louisiana has lost wetlands to the sea due the canalizing of the Mississippi River. The levees prevent river sediment from replenishing the marsh. Instead it's lost out to sea. Without this sediment these wetlands will disappear. Each year an area the size of Manhattan is lost.1 The Delta marsh is what protects the city from direct hits by storms coming off the Gulf of Mexico. If this trend continues New Orleans will eventually be on the ocean. In contrast, the damage from Hurricane Wilma in the Miami area wasn't as catastrophic as New Orleans because what remains of the Everglades prevented that type of damage.

With the loss of wetlands there's often the problem of subsistence of the land in and around the wetlands especially on river deltas. The water is what holds up the land . When wetlands are drained there's nothing to support the land. At same time the Delta marsh is disappearing, New Orleans is sinking. In some places it's as much as 20 feet below sea level. A century ago New Orleans wasn't below sea level. The lower the city drops the more vulnerable it will be to flooding. This is happening to many other river deltas around the world. Thus more people are becoming more susceptible to severe flooding.

Since wetland destruction is so widespread around the world that merely ceasing of such destruction may not be enough. Therefore, when and where it is possible wetlands should be restored. In the case of the Mississippi Delta some of the levees below New Orleans need to be broken to allow the sediment into the marsh in order to build it back up.2 These costs will be substantial but in the long run it won't be as costly as cleaning up after floods not to mention the loss of life.

1. Drowning New Orleans, Scientific American Newsletters, 10/1/01
2. Hurricane Katrina, Nova, 11/14/05

Learn more about this author, Erik Markusson.
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