Southern Outdoor Column: Yes to the marsh

An Outdoor Column From: Tom Conroy DNR Information Officer 261 Highway 15 South New Ulm,MN 56073 507-359-6014 tom.conroy@dnr.state.mn.us February 17, 2006

Title: Yes to the marsh When I heard the ice break and the splash of water, I immediately suspected Charlie was in trouble. And that I might have no choice but to join him.

Charlie is not a large lab, as Labradors go. But he was large enough on that cold December day last year to break through the fickle ice of a cattail marsh. While marsh ice always has the potential to be treacherous, I mistakenly figured it was certainly strong enough to support a dog this late in the year.

Hesitating for a moment to listen for an indication that he had extricated himself, the sound of whimpering quickly told me otherwise. While the water in this particular marsh is at most waist-high, going into it in the dead of winter was going to be a miserable experience.

By the time I reached Charlie and grabbed him by the collar, the water was thigh-high. Back on solid, snow-covered ground, water slogging in my boots, I bid a hasty adieu to my hunting partners and headed for the truck. I didn't so much walk as shuffle. Ice quickly coated my pants and I found myself groaning from the sting in my feet. For the next hour I sat in the truck, my bare feet tight against the heater.

You never know what adventure and mystery you might find in a marsh. "…awesome experiences, humbling experiences, entangling experiences, fundamentally frightening experiences," they have been described. Even the pungent and profuse aromas that emanate from the fertile depths of a wetland are subliminally powerful.

"Smell is a potent wizard that transports us across thousands of miles and all the years we have lived," Helen Keller observed. The smell of a marsh never fails to transport me back in time, evoking poignant memories of old dogs, good friends, departed kin, and remarkable adventures.

That's hardly the way it is for everyone, however. Where some savor the fragrance of a swamp, others recoil at the stench. What, they wonder, can there be to love about a swamp?

Swamps (marshes, bogs, sloughs, wetlands, fens, call them what you will) have long been abused, battered and maligned. They've been disparaged as baleful, stagnant waters, harbor to creeping vermin and disease, dreary and decrepit domiciles for worthless creatures of the muck and mire. And for 150 years we've gone after them with all we've had.

Wetlands, so the thinking of the time went, had just one redeeming value. They were good for ducks. But, hey, there were plenty of ducks back then and besides, who cared if a few duck hunters started squawking. Eventually we went on to eliminate nearly half the wetlands we once had in Minnesota, 90 percent in much of the agricultural region.

Hell-bent on sucking the last ounce of water out of every pothole we didn't like, we were well on our way to accomplishing just that until one day someone in the back of the room held up their hand and innocently asked, "Any chance we might have gone too far?"

Slowly, wetlands began to be seen through different eyes. Rather than dank denizens for creepy critters, they began to be valued as great sponges of biological diversity. Wetlands serve as nature's kidneys, cleaning the waters that flow into them by filtering out nutrients and other toxins. The loss of wetlands through drainage and an increase in serious flooding was linked. And as more wetlands disappeared, duck populations (along with other wetland dependent bird species) began a downward spiral.

Attitudes have changed toward wetlands and they are now widely understood to be among the world's greatest natural assets - our "waterlogged wealth," as someone once described them. Still, there continue to be those who never met a wetland they didn't want to see gone. Wetlands in Minnesota continue to be chipped away at and degraded in numerous ways.

Last April, concern over the continuing loss of wetlands, clean water and wildlife habitat in Minnesota prompted thousands of citizens to rally at the steps of the State Capital to demand change. Among the changes supported were constitutionally dedicated funding for natural resources in Minnesota. That did not happen during the last legislative session.

Another rally for clean water, wetlands and ducks will be held at the Capital on Saturday, April 22, 2006. Information about the rally and the reasons for it can be found at www.wetlandsrally.org.

Yes to the marsh, a place of mystery, offering experiences that can be awesome, frightening, humbling, entangling, ripe with the fragrant breath of life. Yes.