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\f0\fs24 \cf0 Wetlands play a crucial role in preserving the overall health of lakes,
rivers, and surrounding waterways. Many of us utilize the thousands of lakes and rivers
in Wisconsin for recreational activities.\ They also are home to many of Wisconsin\'92s
plants, fish, and animals. For example, almost half of Wisconsin\'92s birds live in or utilize
wetlands for shelter, food, and water, as well as other important game animals. In fact,
one third of Wisconsin\'92s endangered or threatened plants and animals need wetlands
to survive. \ One might ask, what exactly is a wetland?\
\pard\pardeftab720\ri720 \cf0 Wetlands in Wisconsin were defined by
the State Legislature in 1978, stating that \
\pard\pardeftab720\ri720\sl276\slmult1\sa200 \cf0 A wetland is an area where water is at,
near, or above the land surface long enough to be capable of supporting water-loving vegetation
and has soils that indicate wet conditions.\ Wetlands are able to do many things, but they
MUST have these three things in order to even be considered a wetland.\
Why are wetlands important and how exactly do wetlands keep lakes and rivers clean? \
Pollution in runoff water from farms, cities, construction, and other activities are filtered
by wetlands. This clean water is then able to enter into the lakes and rivers of Wisconsin,
which generate over twelve billion dollars in tourism every year. The ability of wetlands
to clean polluted water made them known as \'93nature\'92s kidneys\'94. As you know,
in humans, the kidneys play a vital role in survival because they filter our blood, getting
rid of wastes and toxins and preserving excess water. If the body does not remove these wastes
and toxins, they can build up in the blood and harm our body. Similar to our kidneys,
wetlands have a filtering capability. Wetlands are able to filter out pollutants, yet at
the same time retain essential nutrients that plants and animals need. This filtering capability
makes wetlands just as effective as a five million dollar water treatment plant at removing
pollutants for drinking water. \ \pard\pardeftab720\ri720\sl276\slmult1\sa200
\fs22 \cf0 But wetlands cannot do this unless they are intact\'85 \
A study conducted in 2006 showed that wetlands are not able to efficiently filter if they
are degraded. David Armstrong and his research team investigated a small degraded wetland
called the Upper Dorn Creek Wetland, located in Dane County, Wisconsin (Armstrong, et al.,
2009). Currently this land is being used for agricultural purposes, but historically this
area was an intact and functional wetland. In the late 19\super th\nosupersub century,
drainage ditches were installed in order to help crops grow in ultimate soil conditions.
\ The group analyzed historical data of this
area that showed before the drainage ditches were installed, this site was a functional,
intact wetland. Then after collecting their current data, they proved that the installation
of the drainage ditches altered the interaction between the wetland and the surrounding waterways,
ultimately affecting the wetlands ability to do its job. \
They evaluated phosphorous data from sample plots located upstream of the wetland, in
the wetland, and downstream of the wetland during large storm events in order to measure
the net transport of this essential element.\ Just like our bodies need calcium, potassium,
nitrogen, and other chemical elements, plants need phosphorous in order to stay healthy
and survive. As mentioned earlier, normal wetlands are able to filter out pollutants
and retain essential minerals for plants and animals. This study found that the degraded
wetland was not able to trap and hold essential nutrients, such as phosphorous. The amount
of phosphorous going into the degraded wetland was actually equal to the amount of phosphorous
leaving it. This was caused by the role of the drainage ditches.\
Consequently in this study, degraded agricultural wetlands such as those with drainage ditches
lack in interactions with other major water flows. This decreases the overall effectiveness
of the wetland because the ability of a wetland to function sufficiently depends these interactions.
\ \pard\pardeftab720\ri720\sl276\slmult1\sa200
\fs24 \cf0 Now that one understands how important intact wetlands are, what would happen if
we were to destroy or degrade wetlands in Wisconsin? \
Unfortunately, according to the Department of Natural Resources, Wisconsin has lost about
half its wetlands in the last two centuries. How is this possible? Well, for example, your
tax money goes to building roads, highways, bridges and overpasses. Hundreds of acres
of wetlands are impacted every year when agencies, such as the Department of Transportation,
build these. The construction can case changes to the natural environment around the project
area. To minimize these effects, agencies such as the DOT try to reduce impacts by restoring
project areas. \ Wetland Mitigation is one way that agencies
are able to restore these impacted areas. The first step in wetland mitigation entails
that any disturbance or degradation to wetlands during things such as construction requires
a permit. The department of natural resources (DNR) is responsible for the permitting process
and requires anyone who fills any wetland to get permission by obtaining a permit directly
from them. The DNR does not just hand out permits to anyone! Alternatives to avoid wetlands
loss must first be considered; so only under certain circumstances may someone obtain permission.
By requiring that only IF NECESSARY, unavoidable wetlands may be impacted, the state of Wisconsin
is trying to reverse the loss of wetlands. Since the permitting process for wetland mitigation
began, the average loss of wetlands due to permitted projects has decreased dramatically.
\ Once a permit is granted, the organization
that will be impacting the wetland has two options: they can either put the wetland back
as they found it if they were only temporarily impacting the wetland\'85 or if they are destroying
the wetland completely, they must replace the wetland acreage with a similar type of
wetland acreage from a wetland bank site. Wetland bank sites are acreages of land where
wetlands have been created, restored, preserved, or enhanced at a given area. Therefore, in
a sense, these areas are NEWLY \'93created\'94 wetlands from which one can debit lost acreages
from projects. \ Wetland mitigation is almost like going into
a store and breaking something. The owner will likely say. \'93You break it, you buy
it!\'94 With wetland mitigation, if you impact a wetland, you can replace or restore the
area back to before. So, with the case of wetland mitigation, the owner would say, \'93You
break it- you buy it OR FIX IT!\'94 \ Why is that important?\
Maintaining Wisconsin\'92s wetlands are important for not only humans, but plants and animals
as well. Wetlands are really important to maintaining the things we love most about
this state: wetlands directly impact lakes, rivers, and streams as well as many plants,
fish, and wildlife. These are things we all use for recreational activities, tourism,
and scenic beauty. Making sure we maintain Wisconsin\'92s wetlands should be of the upmost
importance to the citizens of Wisconsin. \ }