vtsnowedin wrote:8) If you are in the United States you need a permit to do ANY work in a wetland. Normaly if you drain or fill in a wetland for any purpose you have to create or permanetly protect a wetland of equal area. Even the bottoms of man made ditches are considered wetlands and state DOTs have to get permits to replace culverts as the water running in the pipe makes a wetland at both ends.
If you get caught filling in or otherwise altering a wetland they will amoung other things make you put it back the way it was at your expense.
dinopello wrote:vtsnowedin wrote:8)
The vampyre may be talking about wetlands outside of the U.S. like Africa or the middle east so I'd like to know if she has some in mind that she believes need draining.
vampyregirl wrote:Like I said I need to do some more research. I mentioned the Hula marshes in Israel because I happen to know about that particular case. I understand that in America there is a debate on whether to drain what is left of the New Jersey Meadowlands. Some say there is nothing there worth saving, others disagree. Since I don't live in America that really dosen't concern me but I am interested anyway. Man vs nature is an interesting topic.
vtsnowedin wrote:Wet lands, real ones not ditches, are indeed valuable as they are. Tidal marshes like the Jersey meadowlands are a critical part of the life cycles of marine life and without them our coastal waters would be devoid of many types of fish and shell fish. Further inland wetlands allow rainwater time to soak into the ground replenishing aquafers and storing suface water modifying downstream flows to the advantage of life downstream. In desert areas even a small patch of wetland provides the last ingredient needed to support life of many species. Its too bad that the protection of these resourses has got tangled in a bureaucratic mess of ditch cleaning permits and political pay to play football.
Ludi wrote:100% agree. Wetlands are vital to preservation of fresh water, soil, biodiversity, etc. Hence they are vital to human survival.
dunewalker wrote:Ludi wrote:100% agree. Wetlands are vital to preservation of fresh water, soil, biodiversity, etc. Hence they are vital to human survival.
To me it's sad that generally, the planet is not appreciated in parameters besides "what's in it for us?" I sense that Ludi does not think in these terms, but is merely attempting to translate the inherent value of wetlands.
uNkNowN ElEmEnt wrote:The destruction of wet lands is also one of the reasons behind massive uncontrollable flooding. These are highly valuable areas.
for an entertaining view from a simple standpoint check out Bill Nye the Science Guys show on wetlands. Its cool and explains it in ways anyone can get.
Serial_Worrier wrote:dunewalker wrote:Ludi wrote:100% agree. Wetlands are vital to preservation of fresh water, soil, biodiversity, etc. Hence they are vital to human survival.
To me it's sad that generally, the planet is not appreciated in parameters besides "what's in it for us?" I sense that Ludi does not think in these terms, but is merely attempting to translate the inherent value of wetlands.
Sorry but anything that gets in the way of my $650 million 1500-unit housing McMansion and shopping mall development must be eliminated!
Swamps — more correctly known as wetlands — are an incredibly important global ecosystem. So today, on World Wetlands Day, let's show them some love.
What makes a 'wetland'?
Wetlands are defined as areas that are covered in water for at least one season. They're often full of plants called hydrophytes: the ferns, sedges and rushes that we typically associate with wet, swampy, boggy areas. These plants love soils that are saturated with water.
But there are many different types of wetlands. There are bogs that are full of peat mosses, marshes at the mouths of rivers and lakes, coastal wetlands where mangrove trees grow and countless other examples.
Why are they so important?
Let me count the ways…
One reason is that wetlands act as natural water filters. When runoff from natural and man-made processes pass through, wetlands can have a neutralizing effect.
If wetlands are in between an agricultural zone and a freshwater ecosystem, fertilizer runoff is absorbed by the wetland and used to fuel the slow processes that take place there. By the time the water reaches a lake or stream, there isn't enough fertilizer left to fuel the destructive algal blooms that can poison freshwater ecosystems.
Another big reason wetlands are important is that they are one of the most productive ecosystems on the planet.
Wetlands are the world's nurseries. Young fish escape predation by hiding amongst the roots and shoots of wetland plants like mangroves. Birds from all over the world use the dense greenery to hide their nests. The 'prairie potholes' of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta are important areas for migrating birds.
How do they help the environment?
It's simple: wetlands help fight climate change.
A new study published today in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment looks at the impact that wetlands can have in mitigating man-made global warming. These areas are able to break down organic material very slowly and without oxygen, storing carbon rather than releasing it into the atmosphere.
Peat bogs — of which Canada has many — are especially good at storing carbon. Bogs are an incredible natural phenomenon that can take take hundreds or thousands of years to develop.
Bogs have a very low pH, which means that dead, decaying plant matter takes a very long time to decompose. So any of the carbon trapped in plants goes down into the ground and is not metabolized into carbon dioxide. Peat bogs or muskeg contain an estimated one-third of the organic carbon in global soils.
How extensive are wetlands in Canada?
We find wetlands across the entire country. Twenty-one per cent of Alberta is classified as wetland. Even small Prince Edward Island is home to wetlands — St Peter's Lake Run is a very important marsh for a bird called the piping plover.
But wetlands are disappearing too. Sixty-eight per cent of Ontario's natural wetlands have been destroyed in favour of agricultural lands or other development. Only about 25 per cent of southern Manitoba's wetlands remain.
That being said — wetland cover in Canada is still substantial. Most of the north's natural wetlands are still intact.
How can wetlands be protected?
For starters, recognizing that just because the land is soggy and unusable for humans does not mean it is not important. In Canada there is a growing awareness about the importance of wetlands, but they always seem to get in the way of someone's attempt to make money.
There are some basic consumer choices you can make to preserve wetlands — an easy one is to look at your shrimp packaging.
Most of the inexpensive shrimp that you find on grocery store shelves comes from farms in Indonesia and Vietnam where mangrove forests are removed in favour of large-scale shrimp ponds. The ponds last only about 10 years, so companies will then move down the coast, destroy more mangroves and start over.
Conservation isn't actually that hard, but it starts with understanding and being aware of just how important these ecosystems really are.
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
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