The natural habitat values wetlands provide are numerous. Wetlands are extremely valuable from a biological perspective. They provide great volumes of food that attract many animal species. This detritus feeds many small aquatic insects, shellfish and small fish that are food for larger predatory fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds and mammals. Many of the U.S. breeding bird populations including ducks, geese, hawks, woodpeckers, wading birds and many song birds feed, nest and raise their young in wetlands.
Fish use inland and coastal wetland areas for spawning and nursery areas.
Back to Top History of Wetlands Historically, throughout the world, wetlands have often been mistakenly regarded as wastelands because they are wet, soggy, muddy areas that bred mosquitoes, flies, diseases and had unpleasant odors. Because wetlands were not productive for our traditional needs such as shelter or agricultural production, wetlands were thought of as places to avoid, and in many cases eliminate. As a result, large areas of wetlands were drained and converted for other land uses such as housing developments and farmland. The Everglades is the vast system of marshes, sloughs, tree islands and cypress forests that once covered most of South Florida. In the early 1900's, after Congress passed the Swamp and Overflowed Lands Grant Act, drainage districts were formed and by the late 1920's much of what was once considered wetlands in South Florida, was drained by numerous canals designed to reclaim land.