Wetland loss knows no boundaries. In Minnesota, the loss of wetlands is manifesting itself in a steep decline in habitat for ducks -- and duck populations. In Michigan the issue is more diffuse but equally dangerous. Loss of over 50% of the state's wetlands means more polluted runoff into rivers and the Great Lakes, declining amphibian and waterfowl populations, higher flood crests, and other effects.
The solution in both states and elsewhere is for conservationists and environmentalists to put their differences aside, get active and demand reform.
Perhaps the state's weakened duck hunting tradition that will continue Saturday -- born out of need generations ago, when sacramental numbers of birds that blackened the sky were reduced quickly to the pot -- will provide the incentive Minnesotans need, finally, to wrestle control of their lands and waters, and therefore their futures.
If so, some value might come, perversely, of the wasteland that Minnesotans have made of much of their state; a wasteland invisible to most, perhaps, but important to all, just as dikes are against a rising tide.
http://www.startribune.com/stories/533/5638815.html
Posted by Dave at September 28, 2005 04:33 PM