Once, the Mississippi River held a wealth of wetness, but today, the river’s treasury has shriveled. I am referring to wetlands, and because they are so valuable, it is time to make some new investments; the return is well worth it.
Many people sort-of understand that wetlands cleanse the earth. In fact, they are carbon sinks that absorb CO2, and they are unparalleled in filtering out human waste, material from rotten carcasses, chemicals, and other pollutants. They recharge underground aquifers and sustain regional water resources, buffering the excesses of drought and flood. Making room for the river with wetlands mitigates flooding in urban areas. And, these watery parts of the earth stabilize the climate.
Settlers and immigrants did not come to this country to preserve and care for nature. They claimed the easiest farmland near the shore and in the river valleys. The need for more farmland brought settlers into the Midwest, and when there was a scarcity of good farmland here, they got into marsh drainage. Congress even turned wetlands over to states for the purposes of drainage. By the 1980’s half of America’s wetlands were wiped out. Between 2004 and 2009, another sixty-two thousand, three hundred acres of wetlands disappeared to agricultural interests and housing developers.
It is in wetlands that the greatest amount of biodiversity has occurred, so losing them for the sake of development and agriculture has been short-sighted. We are shocked into recognition that most of us live only for the moment.
Locally, Nahant Marsh, still rich and wonderful, is a treasure of the natural world and adds to the treasury of the Mississippi. Visitors can share the amazement and delight of a walk any day. There are trails there with more being planned.
Because wetlands and birds go together, grab your binoculars. One can only guess how many bird-watchers and amateur naturalists find mental balance and lifelong interest in the natural world through walks in a marsh. As we learn how valuable wetlands are in softening the shocks of a changing climate, and how eagerly the natural world responds to good care, maybe we can shift the weight of this destruction from inevitable to ‘not on my watch.’ Like Henry David Thoreau, I hope we can see wetlands as desirable landscapes that protect the earth while creating joy in living near them and start putting wetlands in the riverbank, the river’s treasury.