Wetlands have traditionally been given a bad rap in New Zealand and the world, and in my view, it's all been in the marketing.
I mean calling something a swamp, quagmire or bog (who could forget The Bog of Eternal Stench from the movie Labyrinth?) hardly inspires imagery of beautiful places bursting with life, which of course is what wetlands are.
New Zealand has destroyed 90 per cent of our wetlands in just 150 years. The consequences of our thirst to suck the lifeblood from our wetlands is only just catching up with us now.
Wetlands are one of the most productive environments in the world. In New Zealand they are home to a wide range of native plants, fish, birds and invertebrates. Wetlands also provide a crucial filtering function, which benefits the wildlife as well as us. If you think of wetlands as the kidneys of the planet, you'll understand what I mean. Wetlands clean and filter water of nutrients and sediment, protecting downstream catchments.
Maori looked at wetlands as their "supermarket"; a one-stop shop for eels, fish and birds for a feed, flax and raupo for weaving and a myriad other uses for the wildlife found there. Some special wetland habitats were used to prepare bodies for burial and were sacred sites.
I once spent an afternoon with a farmer in Waikato who'd had an epiphany about wetlands. He'd gone from trying to get rid of his, to slowly but surely bringing it back to life. Initially he'd grumbled about fencing it, reckoning he lost a good metre or two of paddock. But then something interesting happened. When summer came around, the paddocks nearest the wetland produced more grass, and didn't need to be irrigated. In winter, the wetland soaked up any excess moisture and prevented surface flooding. His farm increased in productivity through the protection of the wetland. But for him it was about more than that. His two sons grew up playing and boating in the wetland, and with the help of the local duckshooters, they ran a trap line around the outside of the wetland to protect the birdlife from predators. The native birds returned and thrived, and the wetland became a crucial part of the family's farming lifestyle.
If the idea of wetland wildlife doesn't appeal, it might interest you to know that wetlands are extremely valuable to our economy too. For example, the Whangamarino wetland (10,000 hectares) forms an important part of a flood control scheme in Waikato. With control gates at inflow and outflow points, the wetland along with the neighbouring Lake Waikare can store up to 95 million cubic metres of water, lowering the flood peak of the Waikato River by 40-60cm. During a "100 year" flood in 1998, damage to farmland of $5.2 million was avoided. If the wetland didn't exist, Environment Waikato would have to spend millions of dollars on downstream stopbanks.
These days, more and more people are putting huge efforts in to protect wetlands instead of draining them of life. This week the environment court has ruled in favour of stronger protection of wetlands on the West Coast - a great result for swamp lovers, wildlife and the economy.
I'm involved in a restoration project down the end of our road that includes an enormous wetland. It's amazing to see the life coming back to it with the help of the local community. What about you guys? Do you love your swamps and quagmires? Got a fave wetland you want to tell us about? What sort of wildlife do you find there?
One of the iconic West Coast wetlands, now with more protection.
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We in Christchurch learnt the hard way not to mess with our wetlands.
Marshlands and Brooklands were the hardest hit areas.
As their names suggest... they were marshy and wet!
Wetlands have their place,but it's far more important,or it has been,to drain them and plant productive pastureland.The country can't survive looking at frogs and eels.I'm not denying that some retained is a good thing,but remember that most of todays productive pastures were once swamps and woodlands
The unmentioned downside of wetlands is that they produce enormous amounts of methane, rated 24x as powerful a greenhouse gas as CO2. Of course this only matters if you think that has anything to do with climate change, which it probably doesn't.
Allan You are mistaken. Read the literature for starters https://www.facebook.com/Mangrovesforlife or google search Mangroves then you would see the real value of mangroves.
My brother called me from NZ on Tuesday & we were reminising about the local wetlands& rivers below our house(on the Kaipara's Oruawharo river)when we use to catch sprats as the tide went out,mullet,flounder,Karahu(mud pipi's)& snapper off the rocky points. Recently he went back to Oruawharo & found the Corporation(farms Maori land)had dammed up one of the rivers where we spent fabulous times swimming & chasing water rats upstream.He caught some mullet but on gutting them found they were smelly & awful. He says the dammed river no longer runs fast enougth to oxygenate the water & while the fish looked healthy his little experiment to hook some proved him right. Our swimming hole was gone all bogged up in mud & the river grasses seemed to have disappeared as well. We have still got my Dads house there so are back thier quite alot. I think my next little project will be restoring those rivers & wetlands to thier natural order so we can restore some that which is gone. I dont agree with Alan Wilkinson regarding mangroves? Scientifically they have been proven to be the nursery's of many species of fish,shellfish etc & do have a place similar to wetlands in our waterways.Like most people who have an affinity with the land(heritage is Maori/Irish) you have to live it before you understand it.......[:)D}.They do everyting you write about plus heaps more probably so bravo to you & yours.
@ Alan Wilkinson Please do your research before using such words as hate in regards to Mangroves! Mangroves are a symptom of the excess nutrients and sediments coming out of our poorly managed catchments. Removing the mangroves alone will not fix this problem. And calling them a silent dead forest shows that you most definitely have no understanding of the ecosystems in and around mangroves. Whole catchment management is the answer. Fence and plant your waterways, and bring back any wetland remnants as the article suggest to allow natures filtration mechanisms to work.
Yes, wetlands are wonderful and unfortunately New Zealand is destroying them. The Tasman district has destroyed over 97% of its lowland wetlands and it still allows them to be drained for development and dairying. And people will wonder where all the whitebait have gone (wetlands are their spawning grounds). The UK is re-establishing some of their coastal wetlands because they realise it's the only thing that will over some flood protection. I wonder if oh so not clean and green NZ will stop draining our few remaining ones and start reinstating some (although it's impossible to restore all the biodiversity it is better than nothing).
Tony, I'm not mistaken. I walk through them every other day and see and hear the deadness and silence of them compared with the fish and bird life that flourishes everywhere else around them. I see the clogging mud and pacific oysters that grow in it to the exclusion of all the native shellfish and the native fish and birds that depended on them.
They are a hideous, clogging, destructive monoculture that do not belong here.
I think one of the main reasons wetlands get a bad rap is because they're great breeding grounds for mosquitoes. Sure, the wildlife is great, but damn I itch.
@Bekz #7 - Careful, he might call you a religious cult.
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I hate mangroves. They destroy natural biodiversity, kill the wetlands behind them, destroy habitat for sea-birds, shellfish and create a muddy tidal desert and silent, dead forest which eventually builds up into "reclaimed" land.
They are the single biggest threat to Northland wetlands - yet for years they have had absurd, misinformed protection from DoC and its tame bureaucracies.