A small wetland in Minnesota (MN Public Radio File Photo/Dan Gunderson)
In the U.S., landowners who want to drain a wetland are required to replace it with a newly created wetland (or buy a new wetland, as here). New studies suggest that the ecosystem services provided by restored wetlands are more limited that the original wetlands. The magazine Good Environment writes that “Even though [wetlands] cover only 1.5 percent of the earth’s surface, some experts estimate that wetlands provide 40 percent of renewable ‘ecosystem services’—jobs like water filtration and carbon sequestration.” One finding shows that restored wetlands store much less carbon than wetlands that have not been disturbed.