Wetland Conservation in Ontario

Wetlands are highly important ecosystems in which water either covers the land or is present just below the surface, creating waterlogged soils that are an ideal habitat for a variety of moisture-loving plants and animals (MNR, 2017). Wetlands also benefit human populations in numerous ways, as they protect against floods and erosion, improve water quality, feed water into streams and replenish groundwater supplies.

Ontario is home to approximately 25% of the wetlands in Canada and 6% of the wetlands in the world, presenting in several different forms such as swamps, marshes, bogs and fens. These water-based ecosystems are extremely sensitive to climate change, as shifts towards warmer weather with less precipitation can easily cause wetlands to dry up (MNR, 2017). Many wetlands have also been intentionally drained so that the land might be used for agriculture, housing or other industries. Research done by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry suggests that 68% of the wetlands that were once present in Ontario were dried up by the 1980s. ​​

Preserving Ontario’s wetlands is crucial, not only because of the aforementioned reasons, but also because they help to mitigate climate change by sequestering carbon (Krauss et al., 2021). The plants in wetlands uptake atmospheric carbon, and when they die the hypoxic, wet soils cause decomposition to occur very slowly. The wetlands accumulate the carbon from the slowly decaying plant material into the soil rather than releasing it back into the atmosphere, functioning as a carbon sink.

At Plenty Canada, we support the conservation of wetlands through efforts that combine western science and Indigenous Technical Knowledge. Wetlands and the species that they sustain are of material and cultural importance to Indigenous people; an example of this is Manoomin (wild rice), a culturally significant plant species that grows in wetland aquatic ecosystems and is a traditional food source for Indigenous peoples.

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References
Krauss, K.W., Z. Zhu, & C.L. Stagg. (2021, November 16). Managing Wetlands to Improve Carbon Sequestration. EOS. https://eos.org/editors-vox/managing-wetlands-to-improve-carbon-sequestration

Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNR). (2017). A Wetland Conservation Strategy for Ontario 2017-2030. https://files.ontario.ca/mnr_17-075_wetlandstrategy_final_en-accessible.pdf