Why Are Wetlands Important?

You can think of wetlands as acting like sponges, kidneys, and supermarkets, all at the same time.

For example, wetlands act like giant sponges, absorbing water during floods and storms. Instead of washing downstream and transporting sediment, water in wetlands slowly soaks into the ground to recharge aquifers and other sources of ground water.

As water collects in wetlands, this ecosystem cleans the water. Sediments settle out as the water slows; the soil particles bind with pollutants, and some plants absorb the nutrients and toxins that otherwise would wash into our lakes, rivers, and coastal waters.

Some communities use this natural cleansing ability of wetlands to treat the wastewater and sewage that we produce. Such treatment occurs in urban areas of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, plus smaller communities such as Moscow, Idaho.

Moscow Wastewater Treatment Plant in the background

Moscow Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Photo: © Palouse-Clearwater Environmental Institute 2004

Wastewater treatment wetlands in Moscow, Idaho not only provide habitat for birds, but polish the water before it flows down Paradise Creek (Moscow Wastewater Treatment Plant in the background).

Wetlands not only provide food and other functions, but they are peaceful places where many people choose to recreate. In wetlands, folks enjoy hunting, trapping, wildlife viewing, as well as many other activities.

Wetlands also serve as nurseries, cafeterias, and homes for fish and other aquatic species that we humans love to eat. Studies estimate that wetlands provide habitat at some point for at least two-thirds of the fish caught and sold in the United States.

In some wetlands, dense layers of rich organic material form as vegetation dies and is compressed. Called peat, this resource is mined to provide a soil conditioner for gardens and to provide fuel.

Economists consider all of these uses when they estimate the value of wetlands. One small Massachusetts wetland has been valued at $200,000; one acre of Louisiana coastal wetland might generate $80,000 in fish and other resources.

A wetland provides important services to our environment and when it disappears, so do those services. We lose vital flood protection, water cleansing, and food. All of the animals and plants that live in that habitat for all or part of their lives often have nowhere else to go. Frogs have no place to mate and lay eggs; pintail ducks lose a watering and feeding stop on their long migrations; aquatic insects die and all the animals that eat them must find food elsewhere.

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