By Patti Wood

We drive our cars across urban bridges and look down on acres of wetlands, or go out for a sail and glide by wetlands near to the shoreline, or gaze into a woods as we drive along an interstate and spot pockets of wetlands amid the trees. They are not hard to find even in our own neighborhoods.

In fact, right here in an upscale North Shore community, residents are concerned about development in an area with important ecosystems to save, including wetlands, which have great value to the environment and benefits to us, especially now as we move into unpredictable weather events due to climate change.

It was an eye-opener for me when I started researching wetlands. Did you know that wetlands are among the most productive and important ecosystems in the world, right up there with rainforests and coral reefs? Wetlands store as much as 100 times more carbon per acre than dry land. They also purify our groundwater, filtering out pollutants found in suburban lawn applications and prevent flooding. How?

Wetlands act like sponges that trap and then slowly release rain, snowmelt and flood waters due to their dense vegetation and extensive root mats. Preserving wetlands can often provide flood control that would otherwise require costly infrastructure investments.

And like coral reefs and rainforests, they are home to wildlife. Many bird species rely on wetlands for food, water and shelter and they are especially important during migration by providing resting and breeding or nesting grounds. Wetlands are also considered “biological supermarkets,” providing unlimited food that attracts many animal species that live in them for their entire life cycle. Approximately 40% of plants and wildlife utilize the wetland ecosystem and 25% of all wetlands plants and animals are at risk of extinction.

Filling in and drainage of wetlands for conversion to human land use by developers have made them among the world’s most threatened ecosystems. Approximately 35% of the planet’s wetlands were lost between 1970 and 2015 and that loss rate has been accelerating annually since 2000. This loss is especially concerning to scientists studying climate change, who are urging the implementation of global plans to reverse trends on wetland loss and degradation.

We are actually trying to address this right here in New York State with proposed legislation to add additional wetlands sites for protection. The legislation failed to gain traction last year, but is back for review and a vote in the current session. The fate of wetlands is in the hands of the current elected officials who may or may not have any idea of the importance of these critical ecosystems. And even more concerning are local officials who look only at the economic benefits of development and who, too, are unaware of nature’s interconnectedness with us and all other living things. Maybe a course in protecting the natural world should be required of all elected officials?

I recently discovered the man and the writing of George Perkins Marsh, born in 1801 in Woodstock, Vt. Among environmental historians and professional conservationists he is considered the first environmentalist, although Rachel Carson, Henry David Thoreau or John Muir usually come to mind. But look him up and read about his almost impossible-to-believe lifetime accomplishments and you will join me in being inspired.

Among the many books he wrote is “Man and Nature,” and some think it was the most influential text of its time next to Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species.” In 1864, two years before the word “ecology” was coined, the publication of his book sounded an early alarm, a warning, about man’s effect on the environment. Marsh had originally proposed the title, “Man the Disturber of Nature’s Harmonies,” but it was rejected by the publisher. Perhaps too radical for the time?

A quote from a 1847 speech he gave as a congressman (he was a four-term congressman for the Whig Party) shows how remarkably prescient his thinking was.

“Man cannot at his pleasure command the rain and the sunshine, the wind and frost and snow, yet it is certain that climate itself has in many instances been gradually changed and ameliorated or deteriorated by human action. The draining of swamps and the clearing of forests perceptibly effect the evaporation from the earth, and of course the mean quantity of moisture suspended in the air. The same causes modify the electrical condition of the atmosphere and the power of the surface to reflect, absorb and radiate the rays of the sun, and consequently influence the distribution of light and heat, and the force and direction of the winds. Within narrow limits, too, domestic fires and artificial structures create and diffuse increased warmth, to an extent that may effect vegetation.”

For those of you who understand the value of our natural world, I strongly urge you to share that with those around you. They will thank you for opening the door to understanding their place in nature and appreciate your opening their eyes to the beauty and solace found in the natural world.