McIntyre Ranch in southern Alberta. (Supplied)

By Nature Conservancy of Canada

often overlooked essential functions

Op-ed: Wetlands at work: Building resilient communities

Feb 2, 2025 | 6:00 AM

February 2 is usually highlighted by Groundhog Day, when furry rodents forecast if we will have an early spring. Since 1971, this day also serves as World Wetlands Day. Our wetlands perform many essential functions that are often overlooked.

Wetlands provide safety benefits with an efficiency and resiliency often greater than many human-made infrastructure, including protecting our homes, businesses and roads from heavy rains and flooding. They help regulate water runoff throughout the year, storing water during high precipitation periods and slowly releasing it during drought and dry periods.

Wetlands clean water by filtering out sediments, excess nutrients, pesticides, fertilizers and heavy metals. This is important in wetlands connected or close to watercourses, since we use this water for drinking, fishing and agriculture. Wetlands also supply fantastic recreational opportunities like nature appreciation, birdwatching, paddling, fishing and hunting. Extreme rainfall events are more frequent and conditions would be much worse if we didn’t have wetlands acting as a huge sponge during floods, buffering our community infrastructure and working lands. This was reinforced by a new research study involving the University of British Columbia and the Nature Conservancy of Canada Flood prevention benefits provided by Canadian natural ecosystems – ScienceDirect.

This collaboration examined the benefits that Canada’s natural ecosystems provide for flood prevention. It identified the natural ecosystems across the country that capture and retain the highest amounts of runoff and are simultaneously located upstream of urban and agricultural areas. The most important of these ecosystems help prevent flooding in 54 per cent of urban areas and 74 per cent of agricultural lands within floodplains.

Beyond the natural safety benefits to people and communities, wetlands are crucial nesting and feeding grounds for many species of birds. They are nursery habitat for fish and support a wide diversity of insects that are the foundation of the food chain. Close to half of Canada’s wildlife species, and a third of species at risk, rely on wetlands for at least part of their life cycle.

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Many NCC wetland sites are critical habitat for vast numbers of ducks and birds who depend on these areas to breed or stopover during migration.

The Cooking Lake Moraine, also known as the Beaver Hills, is one of the most wetland-rich regions in the Alberta. NCC has helped to conserve over 4,400 acres in this area just outside Edmonton. Shaped by a unique glacial history, the region features a variable topography of low and high areas, known as knob and kettle formations — perfect habitat for one immensely important wetland species: beavers. This highly biodiverse landscape also provides Edmontonians with a nearby escape to experience and connect with nature. We’re immensely proud of the work we have done to conserve wetlands in this part of the province, in partnership with landowners, other conservation organizations and our supporters.

Another area where NCC has been working to conserve wetlands is the Prairie grasslands part of our province. While these projects conserve upland grasslands they also help keep wetlands on the landscape. For example, the conservation of McIntyre Ranch in southern Alberta resulted in almost 2,500 acres of wetlands being conserved. Alberta’s grassland natural region is interspersed by thousands of wetlands known as “prairie potholes,” providing habitat to millions of waterfowl.

Canada is home to an astonishing 25 per cent of the world’s wetlands, yet these diverse and vital ecosystems are underappreciated and under-protected. The country has lost an estimated 70 per cent of its ponds, bogs, swamps, salt marshes, estuaries and other wetlands in southern areas where most people live. In some communities, it is as high as 95 per cent. This is due to land conversion, urbanization, commercial and industrial development, roads, land use practices, sewage and illegal dumping. Globally, 64 per cent of the world’s wetlands have already been lost, a rate three times greater than the loss of forests.

Although many of our wetlands are mainly under ice this time of year, they are nature’s multi-taskers and provide us with safer communities. To learn more about how NCC is conserving some of our most critical ecosystems for both people and wildlife, visit natureconservancy.ca.

Gabriela Duarte is ecosystems services specialist with the Nature Conservancy of Canada

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EDITOR’S NOTE: The views expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of rdnewsNOW or Pattison Media. Column suggestions and letters to the editor can be sent to news@rdnewsNOW.com.

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