It really is hard to get someone passionate about a mosquito-infested piece of swamp that seems just to be there to take up space and look bad. This is why too many people to prevent their destruction do not back wetlands. The main causes of wetland devastation are all linked to man. Pollution, construction, and farming are what are destroying 300,000 acres of wetlands each year (David Allen, J 1995 Pg. 24). Pollution is one of the most potent forms of destruction in that a small amount can cause such damage to a wide variety to plants and wildlife. Construction is another threat because as the popul

Another way that Farms wreak havoc on wetlands is in the chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides. Pesticides take the most direct toll on the environment, they not only kill the insects that feed on crops, but the insects in wetlands where the run off from farms make their way into swamps. From here the pesticides can kill even large animals like ducks and fish, and upset the natural bacterial and microorganisms that form the base of the food chain. Herbicides are what farmers use to keep down weeds. This has a disastrous effect on the environment that is made up mostly of plants. The herbicides make their way into the swamp the same way, as pesticides the only difference is that on most farms herbicides are sprayed much more often as weeds are a consistent problem. These chemicals do not just hurt plants; they are extremely poisonous to wild life.

The greatest benefit wetlands have is on the environment they support, with out these lands many species of plants and animals. Many fish that live in the ocean depend on the wetlands. One may ask how a wetland could be necessary for a fish that lives in the ocean? The answer is that wetlands serve as breeding grounds for many animals, not just fish, as well as act as nurseries for when the animals are just born. It is said that half the fish that are caught commercially rely on wetlands to reproduce (Marshall, A. 1978, Pg. 45). Wetlands are critical to the fish industry, which continues to over farm the oceans. This is a problem obviously because there are more and more fish being caught and less places f or them to breed. This is also true with migratory birds, which use the wetlands to make pit stops and raise their young. It is the life that the wetlands support which makes them North America’s rain forests. In fact a wetland produces just as much life as a rain forest of the same size, and they are both being destroyed at about the same rate (Mitchell, J. (1992, October). “Our Disappearing Wetlands” National Geographic, Pg 15). While wetlands are able to support life they also protect surrounding ecosystems by taking in pollutants that would normally poison the land.

*By the time you finish reading this 42 acres of wetlands will be gone*

Overall wetland loss has slowed significantly due to the combination of laws and helpful organizations. From 1985 to 1995 there has been a loss of 1.2 million acres in the United States, which is about 120,000 acres a year. Since then the number of wetlands destroyed has dropped too less than 100,000 (Encarta 2001: “Wetland Losses Slowed Due to Regulations”). This study done by the National Fish and Wildlife Service also found that 80% of wetland loss was caused by agricultural development. They assume that through the new laws, making wetlands less profitable to destroy, that wetland deforestation will continue to have its steady downhill decline.

It is obvious now that wetlands pose a great benefit to the economy through its resources and recreation, how its one of a kind ecosystem supports a wide variety of wild life that makes it precious to the environment, but what does the future hold for wetlands. When this country was first founded in 1776 there were over 220 million acres of wetlands in the lower 48 states, today less than 100 million acres remain. This translates to 60 acres per hour from then until now, and at the current rate of destruction there will be less than 10 percent of wetlands remaining in the US (Mitchell, J. (1992, October) “Our Disappearing Wetlands”. National Geographic, pp. 13-14). Even though this is a scary statistic EPA officials are confidant with the new laws in place protecting wetlands we can look forward to still having more than 10 percent around in the future. Currently some states like California have less than 9% of its original wetlands remaining. For states like California there is little we can do to repair the damage that has been done. That’s not to say that there

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