How Wetlands Benefit Your Community

All communities need to control costs, improve efficiency, and provide quality services, and water-related services, including drinking and surface water protection, flood abatement, and stormwater management, represent a significant portion of municipal and county budgets. Wetlands, though best known for their natural beauty and wildlife habitat values, also naturally provide many water quality improvement and management services. Protecting and restoring wetlands can therefore contribute to the economic health, public safety, and quality of life in Wisconsin’s communities in the following ways:

>> Wetlands Improve the Quality of Life in Your Community
>> Wetlands Reduce Flooding
>> Wetlands Improve Water Quality
>> Wetlands Increase Hunting, Fishing, and Recreation Spending

How Wetlands Benefit Your Community
This excerpt from the Local Decision Makers' Guide to Wetland Conservation is a printable brochure that illustrates how wetlands contribute to the economic health, public safety, and quality of life in Wisconsin’s communities. Click here to download the wetland benefits brochure.

Wetland Functions and Values
In addition to the public benefits listed above, wetlands provide shoreline stabilization, groundwater recharge and discharge, biological diversity, natural scenic beauty, and recreational, educational, and scientific research opportunities. As part of our Wetland Gems Program, we have recognized examples of wetland sites that deliver these priceless natural functions and public benefits with the designation "Workhorse Wetland." Click here to learn more about the Workhorse Wetland Gems and how they benefit their respective communities. Additional information on the natural functions and public benefits of wetlands can be found through the following resources:

Economic Benefits of Wetlands
The natural functions of wetlands provide an estimated $14.9 trillion in economic value, which accounts for nearly half of the economic benefits generated by all of the world’s natural ecosystems (Costanza et al. 1997). Additional information on the economic benefits of wetlands can be found through the following resources:

Location, Location, Location
The principle that location matters applies to wetlands too. Wetlands develop over thousands of years typically in low spots on the landscape, along the margins of rivers and lakes, or where groundwater discharges from springs and seeps. Wetland functions that develop under site-specific conditions over long periods of time can be difficult and very expensive to recreate elsewhere on the landscape. For this reason, protecting the location of existing wetlands is the most effective way to preserve the public benefits wetlands already provide to your community.

Click here for more information on practical steps land use decision makers can take to protect local wetlands.




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