Week 12: What restoration techniques are taking place to restore the United States' wetlands?

How we can save wetlands to preserve the ecosystem services they provide.

This is an important question because wetlands provide us with a range of ecosystem services and hold a large amount of biodiversity that needs to be protected. Wetlands can be very important in providing clean water and protection from the impacts of climate change, such as flooding. They also store large amounts of carbon and protect shorelines from erosion (US EPA 2023). Strategies to protect and restore the US’ wetlands are controlling invasive species presence, revegetation, and wetland creation. Controlling the presence of invasive species allows wetlands to thrive without the inhibition of competitive plants that can destroy the ecosystem within the wetland. This would be an incredibly effective technique to ensure the strength of wetlands but would require many resources and constant attention if an invasive species is found. Revegetation of wetlands helps to restore the strength of the ecosystem of the wetland and provides other organisms with resources that will foster a healthy wetland. In addition, wetland creation can help balance losses and create an ecosystem that we benefit from. This can be a difficult task due to the complexity of a wetland, as natural systems are hard to replicate artificially. It also takes time for a wetland to establish. 

A gap in knowledge surrounding potential wetland restoration is the long-term success of these efforts. It takes a long time and extensive monitoring to determine the effectiveness of restoration and bridging gaps in its process. Greater research is required to determine effective techniques in restoration and maintenance of wetlands and the ecosystems that they support.

Word Count: 260

“Why are wetlands important?” | US EPA - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Accessed December 19, 2023. https://www.epa.gov/wetlands/why-are-wetlands-important.