Wetland Restoration

Ever since a change in the climate in the middle of the Bronze Age, Britain has been an island shrouded in mists, rising from vast wetlands. Fens, marshes, bogs, swamps, floodplains, lakes, ponds, and rivers run through many of our myths and legends. Wetlands have shaped both us and the land.

But since the bad old days of enclosure, improvement, and industrialisation in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, our wetlands have been systematically drained, straightened, contained, paved over, and reclaimed. Any land that was either permanently or seasonally inundated with water became fair game, especially for agriculture. This has had a devastating effect on wildlife, even though the full extent of those losses can never truly be known.

Estimates vary, but Britain has likely lost somewhere between 75% and 90% of its wetlands over the last few centuries. Around 40% of the world’s plant and animal species depend on wetlands, and new freshwater species continue to be discovered every year. The loss of wetlands has therefore been a slow, quiet catastrophe.

Today, what remains is rare and precious. Many of our surviving wetlands suffer from pollution, degradation, and fragmentation, becoming isolated pockets that are often failing. Yet we now understand just how important wetlands are, and major efforts are being made to restore them.

Benefits of Wetlands

Wetlands are one of the world’s ecological superpowers. They include peatland, the planet’s best carbon sink, and they protect us from flooding and drought, increase biodiversity, clean up pollution, enhance human wellbeing, and boost the economy. Often overshadowed by woodlands, wetlands have enormous untapped potential.

Biodiversity

Wetlands support an incredible range of life. Around 40% of the world’s plant and animal species depend on them, including 30% of known fish species. They host huge numbers of birds, resident and migratory alike, and act as vital staging posts during migration. Amphibians and reptiles also rely heavily on wetland habitats, many of them already endangered or threatened.

Flood Resilience

Every year, homes and businesses are devastated by flooding. Traditional flood defences are failing as climate change intensifies rainfall and storms. Over centuries, landscapes have been engineered to move water off the land as fast as possible and into rivers, which then flood towns and villages downstream.

Restoring wetlands, also known as natural flood management, can greatly reduce this damage. Wetlands slow the flow of water, hold it in soils, store it behind beaver dams, and allow it to spread safely across floodplains instead of surging into built-up areas.

Water Quality

Research shows that wetlands reduce nitrogen pollution significantly. In Europe, restoring even a modest proportion of lost wetlands could sharply reduce riverine nitrogen loads. In the UK, public attention often focuses on sewage, but agricultural pollution is also a huge problem. Restoring wetlands helps distribute and reduce pollution loads, while also strengthening the case for proper enforcement of environmental protections.

Carbon Storage

As climate change worsens, wetlands could prove one of our greatest allies. Study after study shows that wetlands are exceptionally efficient at storing carbon and locking it away for millennia. Peatlands in particular are critical, but seagrass meadows and other wetland habitats also make a major contribution.

Wellbeing

Humans need wetlands too. Time in nature is good for both physical and mental health, and blue environments help regulate our nervous systems. Their value is ecological, but it is also deeply human.

Economy

Wetland restoration is not just good for wildlife. Research from WWT suggests that restoring wetlands across the UK could deliver benefits worth many billions of pounds to society and the environment. In a difficult economic climate, wetland restoration should be seen as a practical, long-term investment.

Protection

Protection must always come first. Further degradation of existing wetlands means more carbon released into the atmosphere, more wildlife loss, more water pollution, and a greater economic burden. But many wetlands are already too damaged to simply protect, and so restoration becomes essential.

How They Can Be Restored

With peatlands such vital carbon sinks, restoring peatland is a crucial part of wetland restoration. Across the country, work is being done to raise water tables again by damming erosion gullies, drainage ditches, and other scars that allow water to escape. Once the water table rises, sphagnum moss can grow again and begin rebuilding peat. Burning peatland for grouse moors or fodder must also stop.

Beavers, of course, have shown their power as ecosystem engineers. They expand wetlands, create habitats for a huge range of species, and retain water on the land. During flood conditions, that water is released more slowly, reducing downstream flooding. During drought, it remains available for wetland-dependent species. Where reintroduction is not possible, we can still mimic some of this effect through leaky dams and other forms of natural flood management.

Vegetation management is also essential. That can mean removing Japanese knotweed from tidal marshes, removing Himalayan balsam from river edges, or planting reeds, rushes, and sedges where they belong. Restoration depends on bringing back what should be there and removing what should not.

Rewiggling rivers, reconnecting them with their floodplains, has also been shown to enhance biodiversity and bring back species such as migrating salmon, while reducing the force of floodwaters downstream.

What Can I Do?

Protect Earth works with landowners and on our own land to restore wetlands. You can help support this work by sponsoring wetland restoration, which will shortly be available in our shop.

Please also support campaigns for wetland restoration, whether focused on marsh, peatland, river systems, or reedbeds. Speak to your MP, join local groups, and get involved in restoring wetland near you.