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Success Story

Celebrating Wetlands: Nature’s Conservation Superhero

Topics
LandWildlife HabitatAgricultural Conservation Easement Program
Publish Date
American Wetlands Month

This May, join NRCS as we celebrate American Wetlands Month and thank our customers who have enrolled nearly 3 million acres in NRCS wetland easement programs. Nicknamed “nature’s kidneys,” wetlands filter excess nutrients, contain floodwater, store carbon and provide valuable habitat. 

By Terry J. Cosby, Chief, Natural Resources Conservation Service 

May is a wonderful time of year, full of many things to celebrate: spring finally arriving across the country, crops growing in the fields, and future Natural Resources Conservation Service employees graduating from college and high school. It’s also American Wetlands Month, a time to recognize wetlands’ conservation “superpowers” and thank our customers who have enrolled more than 2.9 million acres in NRCS wetland easement programs. 

American Wetlands Month Chief Cosby

Natural Resources Conservation Service Chief Terry Cosby visits an NRCS wetland easement in St. Charles County, Mo. Landowner Joan Fitzgerald is partnering with NRCS to work to put wildlife habitat back on the landscape. USDA Photo by Josh Colligan. 

The Long List of Wetland Benefits 

Wetlands, including naturally wet areas like marshes, swamps, bogs, and fens, provide many benefits to the land, water, wildlife, and people. Wetlands benefits include: 

  • removing sediment, nutrients, and other pollutants,  
  • containing floodwaters and storing carbon,  
  • increasing biodiversity, and 
  • providing wildlife habitat and outdoor recreational opportunities. 

Nicknamed “nature’s kidneys,” wetlands filter excess nutrients through a combination of physical, biological, and chemical processes. Some nutrients are used by plants and microorganisms and others fall to the bottom of the wetland with sediment. 

Wetlands also serve as essential habitat for wildlife species across the country. NRCS efforts to create and restore wetlands support many of these species, including: 

  • The Louisiana black bear -- wetlands easements have been credited for their recovery in 2019 
  • The Oregon chub -- wetlands easements have been credited for their recovery in 2015 
  • Whooping cranes -- which rely on wetland easements on their cross-country treks and for raising young 

  • Sage grouse and other wildlife, which depend on the wet meadows of sagebrush country 
     
     

    Louisiana Black Bear

    About that 40 percent of plant and animal species live and breed in habitat provided wetlands, including the once threatened Louisiana Black Bear. 

Continuing NRCS’ 34-Year Effort to Restore America’s Wetlands 

At the time of European settlement, there were more than 200 million acres of wetlands in what is now the United States. By the 1980s, about half of those wetlands remained. Since the creation of the Wetland Reserve Program (WRP) in 1990, NRCS has offered landowners financial and technical assistance to create, restore and enhance wetlands. WRP was replaced by the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP) Wetland Reserve Easement (WRE) program created in the 2014 Farm Bill. Through ACEP-WRE, NRCS continues to help farmers and private landowners, like Doris Rhodes, of Socorro, New Mexico, who put marginal cropland and other eligible land into permanent and 30-year easements. 

Just this past March, NRCS announced we will invest about $138 million of financial assistance from the Inflation Reduction Act in 138 new climate-smart conservation easements, including 100 WRE easements in 14 states, through which farmers and ranchers are conserving wetlands, grasslands, and prime farmlands.  
 

Bringing Back Wetlands Sign

NRCS customers have enrolled more than 2.9 million acres in NRCS wetland easement programs. USDA Photo by Jason Johnson. 

Learning More about Wetlands and Their Conservation Superpowers 

Through USDA’s Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP), a multi-agency effort led by NRCS, we can learn more about how wetlands work and how to target their restoration.  

CEAP measures and reports on trends in conservation practices, and their outcomes, over time. These findings are used to guide conservation program development and support conservationists, agricultural producers, and partners in choosing the most effective conservation actions and making informed management decisions backed by data and science.  

CEAP assessments are carried out at national, regional, and watershed scales and provides many online opportunities for customers, partners and researchers to learn more about wetlands and how they can help meet conservation goals. Some of these include: 

  • Our wetland-themed May Conservation Outcome Webinar features key findings on how mapping riverscapes can inform decisions on where to restore wetlands, so they provide the most benefit. NRCS regularly hosts one-hour virtual webinars featuring scientists and other subject matter experts speaking on a diversity of topics related to voluntary conservation efforts on working lands. 
  • A recent Conservation Insight, where you can learn more about optimizing the benefits of wetlands by carefully managing the contributing areas to reduce contaminate loading. You can also learn more about this project in this Ask the Expert Blog by CEAP Wetlands Lead Joe Prenger. 
  • More than 725,000 acres of Wetland Reserve Easement (WRE) wetlands in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley serve as important habitat for migrating waterfowl during the winter months. A project supported by CEAP revealed that, without these easements, the wintering mallard population in the study area could be reduced by up to 80 percent. Learn more in this Conservation Insight. 
Migrating Water Fowl

Wetlands provide essential habitat for ducks and other migrating waterfowl. A study supported by Conservation Assessment Effects Project revealed that, without these easements, the wintering mallard population in the study area could be reduced by up to 80 percent. 
 
NRCS Can Help 

NRCS accepts ACEP-WRE applications year-round, but applications are ranked and funded by enrollment periods. Each state sets the application deadlines for enrollment periods; contact your local service center for information. You can also visit our state-by-state ranking date webpage for more information. 

Not only does NRCS help farmers, ranchers, Tribes, and others create or restore wetlands, we also help them install other conservation practices to help protect wetlands. We provide technical and financial assistance to install a wide range of conservation practices--including climate-smart practices like filter strips and no-till--to reduce the amount of nutrients and sediments entering streams and wetlands. This improves the potential for wetlands to store water and recycle nutrients over the long term. 

I encourage anyone interested in wetlands to contact their local NRCS office to meet with our staff about harnessing the superpowers of wetlands on your working lands.