Opinion: Wetlands vital to a functioning environment

April 22, 2009
By Nathan Harmon
Staff Writer

In this era of environmental degradation and change, there is an especially effective way of making a positive impact on the environment. Thinking globally and acting locally, we should really get involved with an epic project which is part of the University of Illinois at-large.  As campus and community members, we can really affect change with donations and participation in one of the most effective environmental movements of today: wetland restoration.

I know what you’re thinking: mosquitos, bug bites, balmy swamplands. But really, some of the greatest treasures around the world are wetlands.
Why do these wetlands help the environment at large? Wetlands do many great things for the environment. They filter waste and excess nutrients from farm and industrial waste naturally, while providing a natural habitat for plants and animals, which then allow for hunting and fishing and other outdoor pursuits where we can enjoy recreation. Wetland restoration has been found to treat Gulf Hypoxia, or a lack of oxygen, which now plagues the Mississippi Basin in the Gulf of Mexico, creating a “dead zone” for which the Illinois River is partly responsible.

Before European settlers arrived, 392 million acres of what is now the United States of America were wetlands, 11 percent of the total land. 53 percent of those wetlands were drained and lost, mostly to be used as farmland according to A Case for Wetland Restoration, written by Donald L. Hey and Nancy Phillippi.

I think it’s time to change our attitude about wetlands and the environment at large. In the words of Thoreau in Walden, “Simplify, simplify, simplify.” Therefore, let us allow the environment, to some such extent, return its natural state. But what is natural? I think we shall see in the coming years that what is natural is what is survivable to as many creatures as possible, or even what is survivable to us. Going vegetarian, having a lower carbon impact, and other ways to help the environment, ad infinitum, really help humans in the end. It’s like the law of karma, or for the layperson, what goes around comes around. So, if we provide for other parts of creation, those parts shall provide for us.

Therefore, I think that it would be crucial to participate in one of the greatest wetland restorations in the world, second only to the Everglades in South Florida: The Emiquon Restoration project, featuring the University of Illinois’ Emiquon Field Station, which carries out research and teaching on the Emiquon Restoration, owned by the not-for-profit Nature Conservancy. Located near Havana, Illinois, somewhat close to Springfield, this bastion of hope for the environment keeps churning out good research and is quickly becoming a habitat for many creatures.

So, let us participate in a brave new project for change in the world. Let us let nature return more to its natural course.

Let the water run.

And keep an eye out for events at the Emiquon Field Station, participation is welcome.