No matter where you go in Minnesota, you are probably not far from a wetland, or land that once was wetland.
Wetlands fulfill a wide variety of functions.
They control floods by slowing runoff and by providing space for water to accumulate during the spring snow melt. They purify water by allowing rainwater and runoff to gradually soak into the ground, entering the ground water only after wetland plants have extracted nutrients and water has passed through many layers of wetland sediments. And they provide a diverse and biologically productive habitat for wildlife, producing as much plant and animal life as a similar-sized area of tropical rain forest. An area is considered to be a wetland if it is covered by water for at least part of the year, has waterlogged soils, or grows water-loving plants. These wetlands were once common in the prairie biome, but many of them have now been drained for farmland, or filled for development.