Habitat: Wetland Mitigate Flooding
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It may seem counter-intuitive that a wetland—something that’s filled with water—can actually help to reduce the amount of floodwater that reaches the built environment during extreme weather events.
06—Because it holds the water in and then releases it at a much more controlled rate over a longer period of time.
Nathan Kuhn, a wetlands biologist with parks and Wildlife, says flooding may still occur, but…
07—Flooding isn’t as severe, and so there’s less damage essentially being caused by these storm events.
We’re slowing gaining an appreciation for the benefits of wetlands, and we mostly understand that they are not worthless, stinking, mosquito infested swamps, to fill in for future development.
Nevertheless, we’ve lost acres of coastal wetlands due to that thinking and action, and so flooding in parts of Texas can be absolutely devastating during extreme weather events.
15—We’re not normally dealing with extreme events. But, when we do have those extreme events, then we’re getting the flooding that we’ve never really seen before in many cases due to the lack of wetlands. That’s because there’s so much hard surface now, where there used to be exposed soil to soak up that water.
Learn about wetlands on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.
Our show receives support from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program…working to increase fishing, hunting, shooting and boating opportunities in Texas. For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti
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