Integrating wetlands into planned landscapes

The commonly held perspective of wetland habitats in planned landscapes has shifted from areas requiring drainage and fill to valuable habitat providing benefits to society. This shift in perspective has given rise to federal, state and local wetland protection efforts, but planners, landscape architects and engineers have yet to integrate wetland habitats into communities and planned landscapes. In fact, many of the practices employed by land planners to address wetland protection are all too often creating ecological traps that do more harm than good. Complicating the integration of wetland habitats into communities is the public preference for certain types of natural landscapes. In response to this stated aesthetic preference, landscape management practices intended to improve the appearance of wetland habitats actually destroy valuable breeding sites, and food and cover for numerous birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians. With careful planning, design, implementation, and public education, wetland habitats can be fully integrated into planned landscapes without destroying valuable benefits provided by wetland ecosystems.