02/02/2023 | News release | Distributed by Public on 02/02/2023 03:33
The recently completed Lower Dungeness Floodplain Restoration project reconnects the lower Dungeness River to its historic channels and floodplain. This will ensure the perpetual conservation and restoration of wetlands, floodplains, and shorelines along one of the most important river systems on the Olympic Peninsula.
Today is World Wetlands Day, and we are celebrating the work our agency has done to support the conservation and restoration of Washington state's wetlands.
Wetlands - land areas that are saturated or flooded with water, either permanently or seasonally - perform many ecological functions, and our knowledge and understanding about the complexities that wetland ecosystems represent is always growing.
Our wetland ecologists have already documented the environmental benefits wetlands provide, including:
Not all wetlands provide all these benefits, and how a wetland near you works depends on its location and type.
Wetlands can be found in different places:
Restored wetlands bring seven key benefits to our communities:
There are significant economic benefits associated with wetlands. If a community had to build flood-control or water-treatment systems to replace the functions wetlands provide, the costs would far outweigh the expense of preserving natural wetland systems. An independent study found freshwater wetlands in the Puget Sound region alone could be worth about $7.7 billion to Washington's economy.
Wetlands also provide habitat for myriad fish and wildlife, including endangered and threatened species and economically important species such as salmon.
As amazing as wetlands are, and their contribution to our economy and the environment, they do have their limits. A partly filled or otherwise-damaged wetland can only partially meet its potential for flood control, shoreline stabilization, or groundwater recharge.
A degraded wetland can lose its capacity to remove excess sediments, nutrients, and other pollutants. It can also lose its habitat value for fish and wildlife. Wetlands may have tremendous capacities to provide environmental benefits, but they are not indestructible. If we want wetlands to continue to perform their ecological functions, everyone must do their part to protect them.
Learn more about how wetlands perform their complex functions.
There are large and small ways individuals and groups can play a part in protecting and restoring Washington state's wetland resources.
Make choices that minimize the loss and degradation of wetlands and maximize awareness of how urgent their restoration is:
You can find even more ways to help at worldwetlandsday.org.
Stay tuned for future blog posts on recently completed wetlands restoration projects.