FLOODPLAINS ARE A GOOD THING
            “Experience is the best teacher,” the old saying goes. In that case, we should have learned a lot from our recent deluge of rain. The freshwater of rainfall finds a way to recharge our streams, rivers, and lakes – over the surface, in, around, and through anything that gets in its way, and through the ground. Man-made attempts to manage water often fall short of keeping the water where we want it.
            Flood control structures cause water to rise more rapidly and higher than they might rise naturally; they are designed to provide only a certain level of protection; and they can fail. At times when surface waters are at lower levels and we think we are protected, we seek to use areas for buildings, roads, and parking lots covering up land that would naturally take higher water flows and hold them to be released more slowly.
            When we build on or cover up areas that are nature’s way of making a place for rainwater (or snowmelt) to flow, we are working against nature and the benefits of waterways, wetlands, and floodplains. As we use land in the floodplain the boundaries of the floodplain expand from the loss of surfaces where the water can infiltrate the ground. In dollars, repairing damages costs more than restoring natural flood protection.
            “Natural flood protection can be attained by protecting and restoring wetlands and floodplains, and by restoring a river’s natural flow and meandering channel. Giving at least some floodplain back to a river will give the river more room to spread out. Furthermore, wetlands act as natural sponges, storing and slowly releasing floodwaters after peak flood flows have passed. A single acre of wetland, saturated to a depth of one foot, will retain 330,000 gallons of water enough to flood thirteen average-sized homes thigh-deep.”
            Maintaining and restoring healthy rivers, wetlands, and floodplains provides other benefits as well:

• Providing clean water – acting as natural filters, absorbing nutrients and other pollutants.
• Controlling erosion – preventing runoff from carrying sediment and nutrients into surface waters.
• Sustaining fisheries – allowing expanded areas for breeding and feeding grounds.
• Supporting recreation – providing excellent habitats for fish and wildlife and maintaining biodiversity.
• Allowing for vitally important habitat for over 70 percent of all vertebrate species that rely upon the land along the river’s edge.

Our forefathers chose to locate along rivers, lakes, and streams in order to have access to water – for human and animal use, for industry, and for transportation. Hopefully experience teaches us that this is not a wise use of wetlands and floodplains. Let’s adjust and take advantage of the natural protection that floodplains have to offer.
           
Quotes and information are from www.americanrivers.org. More information can be found at www.woodriver.org and The Nature Conservancy website, www.nature.org.

Della Moen, Earth Team Volunteer, NRCS/Stephenson Soil and Water Conservation District, an equal opportunity provider and employer, 07/28/10 (for publication on 07/31/10 in the Journal-Standard, Freeport, Illinois) Della can be reached at info@stephensonswcd.org