Cranberry production entails flooding cranberry fields several times a year to eliminate weeds, to aid in harvest, and to protect the plants from freezing through the winter. Large amounts of water are needed in the fall and winter, when ground water levels may be at their lowest. This water is discharged into waterways in the spring, when there may be potential flooding. Irrigation is common for cranberry cultivation. Cranberries and wetlands.
Cranberries are plants that are found naturally associated with wetland habitats.
Cultivated cranberries grow best in former wetlands or areas where water is at or near the surface. At the least, abundant water is necessary at regular intervals throughout the year for the cultivation of this crop. Cranberry marshes or bogs have historically been developed in former wetlands, where the original wetland vegetation is removed and replaced with perennial cranberry varieties. Over the past two decades alone, approximately 5,200 acres of wetland have been lost for direct conversion to cranberry beds, and additional wetland acreage has been altered for the construction of reservoirs, ditches and dikes to hold and circulate large volumes of water for the cranberry fields. The cranberry industry has been the primary cause of wetland losses in Wisconsin during this twenty year period.