The wetland included a calcareous fen, a rare type of wetland. This area will become part of the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge. The land was purchased from a developer who intended to develop the property, but had difficulty in obtaining federal permits. Wetlands help maintain and improve the water quality of our nations' rivers and other waterbodies. Wetlands do this by removing and retaining nutrients, processing chemical and organic wastes, and reducing sediment loads to receiving waters.
Wetlands are particularly good water filters.
Due to their position between upland and deep water, wetlands can intercept surface-water runoff from land before it reaches open water. They also filter nutrients that have been removed from upland areas due to water erosion or ground waterflow. This is especially important for nitrogen and phosphorus. As wetlands have been removed, more of these nutrients moved into lakes and rivers, causing excess vegetative and algae growth which results in cultural eutrophication of water bodies. Cultural eutrophication describes human-generated fertilization of water bodies.