I noticed at the bridge where the river goes under route 22, the water was within a foot or so of the bottom of the old route 22 bridge. A week later we had another Saturday downpour and floods, but the river has not risen any higher. I passed streams that were rampaging down their stream beds but which upon entering the Great Swamp calmed, spread out, and posed no threat. The Great Swamp had absorbed it all. The value of this vast ecosystem, known as The Great Swamp is immeasurable.
Wetlands provide storage areas that slowly release water downstream.
They are a massive sponge, and like a sponge has the ability to go from saturation to dryness such as we had in last summer s drought. Wetlands reduce the flow and velocity of flood waters, reducing erosion and helping waters to deposit sediments. Wetlands are storage for vast amounts of carbon. They prevent the carbon from escaping into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, known to be one of the leading causes of global warming. Wetlands are producers of life, some wetlands as productive as a similar size of rain forest.