A Wetlands Specialist with the Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority claims Southern Ontario has lost between 90 to 95 per cent of wetland areas.
Angela Van Niekerk says the Ausable Bayfield Watershed is down to about two percent of wetland area. Studies suggest that number should be between six and ten per cent for a healthy watershed.
That's why she says it's so important to protect what we have left, and convert more marginal land back into wetlands.
Van Niekerk says smaller wetland areas are vulnerable because they don't have the same protections that larger provincially-significant wetlands have.
"They filter water quality, they filter nutrients, they convert those nutrients into other useable forms for other fish and wildlife forms to use. They hold onto that water, slowly replenishing the ground water and providing water during drought times back to the streams."
Van Niekerk adds wetlands also reduce flooding and erosion down stream, and provide habitat for over 600 species.
Angela Van Niekerk - Wetlands Specialist, Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority (photo by Bob Montgomery)
