Wetlands provide many benefits.
They help reduce flooding, sustain stream flow, filter pollutants, provide habitat for wildlife, and support biological diversity. Preserving and protecting wetlands is important. Although wetland losses have decreased, the nation continues to lose about 54,000 acres per year. More than half of the original wetlands in the lower 48 states have been drained and converted for other uses. Wetland is a word used for marshes, swamps, bogs, and similar areas where water covers the soil part, if not all, of the year.