The Price of Wetlands

Many people think of wetlands as habitat, but it is time for the general public to learn that  besides being a cool place to kayak and provide homes for animals and plants, wetlands are essential for reducing flooding.  What price will we pay to conserve and build back these areas?

Check out the article "Putting a price tag on the flood-reducing value of wetlands by Brandon Keim | Sep 13, 2017 - With every big coastal storm, attention turns to the role of wetlands in reducing their destructiveness. Quantifying that service, however, is a difficult thing to do. Now a team of ecologists, engineers and risk modelers have provided two such price tags: $625 million in damage prevented by wetlands during Hurricane Sandy, and — in a New Jersey county broadly emblematic of the Atlantic coast — a 16 percent reduction in flood losses every single year."