User:Roduwo/Wetlands in Detroit Lakes, MN

BASIC DEFINITIONS
A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with moisture either permanently or seasonally. Such areas may also be coveredpartially or completely by shallow pools of water.Wetlands have been categorized both as biomes and ecosystems. They are generally distinguished from other water bodies or landforms based on their water level and on the types of plants that thrive within them. Wetland types include Swamps, Marshes, Bogs, Slough, Flooded grasslands and savannas, Constructed wetlands, and Riparian zones.

CONSERVATION OF WETLANDS
Due to their lack of potential financial benefits, wetlands have historically been the victim of large-scale draining efforts for real estate development, or flooding for use as recreational lakes. Wetlands provide a valuable flood control function, but building levees helps replace natural flood controls. Wetlands were very effective at filtering and cleaning water[10], so to help with the ever increasing challenge of decreasing water pollution (often from agricultural runoff from the farms that replaced the wetlands in the first place), millions of dollars have been invested on water purification plants and expensive remediation measures. The USA came to understand how biologically productive wetlands are, so the USA passed laws limiting wetlands destruction, and created requirements that if a wetland had to be drained, developers at least had to offset the loss by creating artificial wetlands. One example is the project by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to control flooding and enhance development by taming the Everglades, a project which has now been reversed to restore much of the wetlands as a natural habitat for plant and animal life, as well as a method of flood control.

By 1993 half the world's wetlands had been drained. Since the 1970s, more focus has been put on preserving wetlands for their natural function — sometimes also at great expense.

The South African Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism in conjunction with the departments of Water Affairs and Forestry, and of Agriculture, supports the conservation and rehabilitation of wetlands through the Working for Wetlands program. The aim of this program is to encourage the protection, rehabilitation and sustainable use of South African wetlands through co-operative governance and partnerships. The program is also a poverty relief effort, providing employment in wetland maintenance.

Over 90% of the wetlands in New Zealand have been drained since European settlement, predominantly to create farmland. Wetlands now have a degree of protection under the Resource Management Act.

DETROIT LAKES WETLAND MANAGEMENT DISTRICT, MINESOTTA
Detroit Lakes is a City in Northern Minnesota,U.S.A. The city has a population of 300,000 people. The northern most Wetland Management District in Minessota has its head office in detroit Lakes. The Wetland management District includes the counties of Becker, Clay, Mahnomen, Norman, and Polk. This portion of Minessota is part of a 3,00,000 square mile area that covers portions of the Dakotas, Montana, Minessota, Iowa,, and Central Canada known as the Prairie Pothole Region. This region has many small prairie wetland basins that were carved out of the landscape by the retreating glaciers about 12, 000 years ago.