Wetlands: The superhero of the plains

Image from Todd Tyler farm, in Merrick County, a colonized wetland.

Wetlands have a long history of being misunderstood. For years, they have been considered waste land, taking up space that could be used for production or construction. Not many know that wetlands actually contribute to flood control, erosion control, and water filtration.

Floods can devastate an area. Wetlands spread the excess water over a large area, decreasing the water’s velocity.  Acting as a natural barrier, wetlands will decrease a flood’s speed resulting in less destruction usually. Besides flood control, wetlands collect silt and other windblown sediments as well as holding onto their surrounding soils. This allows for a variety of biota, which absorb waves and excess water. Wetlands also filter the excess water, by taking out impurities. Biota in the wetlands relies on their roots to gather these impurities which can range from chemicals to even nutrients (EPA).

Wetlands are extremely important to maintaining water systems and other habitats. The EPA reports that 1 acre of a wetland has more life than 1 acre of any other habitat and that 35% of endangered species rely on wetlands. Maintaining wetlands should be a priority.

Alas, with pivot irrigation increasing production agriculture in areas that have never been plowed before, wetlands are on top of the hit list. Nebraska lacks a formal wetlands protection agency; instead, it relies on Nebraska common law. Common law allows landowners to drain wetlands without state or NRD permits, as long as the drainage does not have a regular flow that could affect neighboring landowners. Depending on the situation, landowners may be required by law to build a wetland or reestablish an old wetland in order to destroy one. This is monitored by the Department of Environmental Quality. Besides the ecological setbacks, there are some economical setbacks to converting wetlands to production crop land. Farmers who drain wetlands in Nebraska can lose federal program payments under conservation provisions, such as swampbuster, if they drain a wetland on their land (Aiken).  This at least demonstrates that protecting wetlands is ecologically and economically beneficial.