A stand of common cordgrass in a salt marsh can produce more plant material and stored energy per acre than any agricultural crop except cultivated sugar cane. Nutrients and plant material flushed from some wetland systems during storms provide essential food for plants, fish, and wildlife in estuaries and other downstream ecosystems. Coastal wetlands help to blunt the force of major storms. Mangrove wetlands, such as those along shorelines in Biscayne National Park in Florida, reduce flooding, coastal erosion, and property damage. Many wetlands contain a diversity of plants and animals that provide beautiful places for sightseeing, hiking, fishing, hunting, boating, bird watching, and photography.
Some wetlands help provide clean, plentiful water supplies.
For example, wetlands in Florida's Everglades help recharge the Biscayne Aquifer, the sole source of drinking water for the Miami metropolitan area. Ecological, cultural, and historic resources run abundant in our nation's wetlands, and provide countless opportunities for environmental education and public awareness programs. Although some of our wetlands have been created in as short a span as a human lifetime, many others took thousands of years to develop. Coastal wetlands also form when silt is carried down-river and deposited as it reaches the sea. Plants then take root and hold the soil deposits firm against the force of the tide.