Wetlands are an essential part of our natural world. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) describes wetlands as “among the most productive ecosystems in the world, comparable to rain forests and coral reefs” and as “biological supermarkets”. But what exactly are they?

There are many types of wetlands and ways to categorize them but in its most basic form, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Army Corps) and EPA via the Clean Water Act (33CFR 328.3) jointly define wetlands as: “those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions.”

Another way to look at wetlands, they typically include low-lying transitional areas located between uplands and open water aquatic habitats such as ponds, lakes, rivers, and streams.  Wetlands are also located in isolated depressional areas among the landscape. Due to the prevalence of standing water, some wetlands are obvious, such as swamps and marshes, but other types are not easily recognized. Wet prairies for example can be bone dry during part of the year and to the untrained eye, “they just don’t look very wet “.

As plants require oxygen for survival and growth, only those with specific adaptations can live and reproduce under wet circumstances. Because of the special landscape conditions and plant adaptations, wetlands can uptake a lot of water, like a sponge. Rainfall and polluted stormwater runoff are absorbed into wetland plants and soil pore spaces. The water is then slowly filtered clean and released over time to groundwater supplies and into streams and rivers.

With recent record-breaking rainfall events, the spread of invasive species, and wetlands being converted to man-made uses, there is more pressure than ever on existing wetland systems to store flood water and keep freshwater clean! Unfortunately, every wetland has its water holding capacity and many wetland environments in northeast Illinois and elsewhere are degraded. Invasive plants such as reed canary grass (Phalaris arundinacea) and common reed (Phragmites australis) dominate wetland communities and unlike native species, provide minimal to no beneficial services to people or critters.

Especially in modern times, restoring wetlands with native plant communities, expanding the footprints of wetlands, and creating new ones are critical to improving water quality, providing a natural space for flood water storage, stabilizing shorelines, recharging groundwater, storing carbon, and preserving biodiversity, which benefit us and the economy. W2W wetland experts have the knowledge and expertise to identify wetland boundaries, restore native wetland plant communities, and design new wetland plant communities! Reach out to us today to see how we can assist with your wetland project and/or flooding issues.