Reversing wetlands history

Excerpt

About half of wetlands worldwide have disappeared since 1900, according to Wetlands International, an independent global nonprofit dedicated to the conservation and wise use of wetlands. Wetlands in the United States have been systematically drained for agricultural purposes since the 1700s.

In a new book, Wetland Drainage, Restoration, and Repair (University of Kentucky Press, 2007), Thomas R. Biebighauser, a wildlife biologist for the USDA Forest Service, examines the human relationship with wetlands over time, explaining the rationale and techniques used to drain wetlands in the past and the reasons and techniques for restoring wetlands today.

Biebighauser does not cast stones at those who previously drained wetlands but instead attempts to understand their perspectives and different times. “The drainers of wet land … were extremely dedicated to their cause of converting what they viewed as worthless swampland to acres of great value to their families.”

Many different methods have been used to drain wetlands over the years, including wood box ditches, rock channels, clay tiles, open ditches, grassy waterways, directional plowing, and, more recently, plastic drain lines.

“The Soil Conservation Service (SCS) provided extensive technical and financial assistance to landowners who constructed diversion ditches in the 1950s,” …