Perhaps the greatest gift of wetlands is clean water.  Because water moves more slowly in a wetland and the vegetation is rich and diverse, there is time and opportunity for natural biological and chemical processes to occur in wetlands. This natural process removes nutrient contamination, other pollutants, and suspended sediment from the water.

Fertilizer, manure, and municipal wastewater all add nitrogen and phosphorus to our rivers and streams. If the nitrogen is not removed, it enters our streams and rivers and, eventually, our coastal bays and estuaries.

Marine algae feed on these nutrients, overpopulate, and, as they decompose, siphon oxygen from the water. This creates low-oxygen “dead zones” —known as hypoxia—along our coastlines that are uninhabitable to aquatic life. Today the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico reaches the size of Massachusetts.

Restored wetlands can help clean the water by removing these nutrients before they reach the ocean. The Wetlands Initiative’s nutrient farming strategy aims to harness the natural ability of wetlands to clean our water.

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