Dec. 15, 2017 – Healthy wetlands are hard-working water filters! The Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) December 15 Soils Matter blog post explains the role of wetlands—and how we can keep them functioning.

As rainwater moves over the landscape, sediment and chemicals can be picked up and carried along. “A wetland traps and removes waste coming to it from the environment. The water released by wetlands is cleaner than what flowed into it,” says Jim Friedericks, Outreach and Education, agsourcelaboratories.com.

“Not only are wetlands natural filters in the environment, they also provide habitat for wildlife and areas for recreation. Because they act as these filters, they can become degraded if they are loaded with too much sediment or nutrients in the water.”

Preventing erosion and nutrient runoff protects these valued ecosystems from degradation.

To read the entire blog post, visit https://soilsmatter.wordpress.com/2017/12/15/are-wetlands-rea…e-earths-kidneys/.

Follow SSSA on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/SSSA.soils, Twitter at SSSA_Soils. SSSA has soils information on www.soils.org/discover-soils, for teachers at www.soils4teachers.org, and for students through 12^th grade, www.soils4kids.org.