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Wisconsin Wetlands Association launched our statewide Wetlands Threats Analysis in 2005 with the goal of identifying the top threats facing wetlands in Wisconsin to help guide the work of our organization and others doing wetland protection work in Wisconsin. Follow the links below to read more about this project and how you can get involved. Thank you to John Taylor for the financial support and vision to launch this project.
Examples of Threats to Wetlands
Threats to wetlands are many and varied. To categorize the long list of threats, Wisconsin Wetlands Association and our partners will look at how a given threat changes the fundamental natural processes that function in the wetland community type. That way, we will be able to understand how the various threats contribute to the degradation of the natural processes that are fundamental to maintaining wetlands. We refer to the change to the fundamental natural processes as a Stress and the action that results in changes to fundamental natural processes as a Source of Stress.
Stresses
For the purposes of this analysis, "stresses" are defined as changes to natural processes that are fundamental to maintaining wetlands, including:
- Outright destruction - Includes filling, dredging, building, tiling, ditching, and other actions that can destroy wetlands. Sometimes referred to as "habitat loss"
- Altered water quantity/altered hydrologic processes - Includes changes to surface flow, groundwater depletion, effects of dams, ditches, and sometimes tiles, management of lake levels, and other actors affecting water quantity and hydrology.
- Altered water quality/altered water chemistry - Includes clarity/turbidity, nutrient load, pollutants, temperature, and other factors affecting water quality and chemistry.
- Altered species composition/community structure/simplification - Includes tree removal/change in tree canopy, changes to abundance and/or diversity of species, and other factors effecting species composition.
- Altered soil composition/sedimentation - Includes changes in soil chemistry, soil type, production and decomposition rates, and other factors effecting soil composition.
- Habitat fragmentation - Includes the reduction in extent and connectivity of remaining habitats (including the loss of continuity between uplands and lowlands or other gradients important to the proper functioning of wetlands and related natural communities, like connections between rivers and wetlands).
Sources of Stress
For the purposes of this analysis, "sources of stress" are defined as actions that results in changes to natural processes that are fundamental to maintaining wetlands. The list provided below does not represent a complete list of Sources of Stress, but rather an illustrative partial list. Also notice that Sources of Stress can affect more than one fundamental natural process (e.g., ditching a wetland can both alter the quantity of water in that wetland and alter the plant species composition of the wetland (because of the reduced water quantity).
| Agricultural practices | Groundwater withdrawal |
| Barge traffic | High nutrient loads |
| Beaver activity (absence or presence) | High road densities |
| Changing hydrology | Impervious surfaces |
| Commercial peat harvesting | Impoundments |
| Commercial sphagnum moss harvesting | Invasive animals and/or plants |
| Dams | Land use conversion |
| Development | Motorized recreation |
| Dike construction | Non-point source pollution (runoff) |
| Ditching | Pesticides |
| Drainage | Point source pollution |
| Dredge material disposal | Rip-rapping |
| Dredging | Road construction |
| Erosion | Road salt |
| Eutrophication | Sedimentation |
| Filling | Tiling |
| Forestry practices & tree removal | Transportation projects (roads, airports) |
| Global Climate Change | Utility projects |
| Grazing | Wave impacts |
More on the Wetland Threats Analysis:
>> Introduction to the Project
>> Project Process & Methods
>> Back to top of this page
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