We've had 200 years of fairly dramatic landscape change in settled areas of Canada, particularly in areas that are deriving income from the land. The land has been cleared; many of the wetlands have been drained. We have lost about 70% of the basins on the Prairies. It's unfortunately a trend that continues today. We lose about 80 acres of wetland every day in Canada.
The wetland basins, particularly in the prairie pothole region, are nature's way of retaining water on the land. When you remove that retentive capacity from the land, you are putting more water downstream into creeks and feeder streams. Of course, in the case of Manitoba this is flooding the Assiniboine, and the Red is becoming flooded as well.
That water has to go somewhere. Not all of it can go fast enough into the big lakes, and even when it does go into the big lakes, we're seeing a tremendous amount of shoreline damage from higher water levels and major ice dams that are forming. At the historic Delta Marsh in Manitoba there was very severe damage done to buildings on the shoreline.
The prairie basins are not only retaining water and slowing down the flow rates into the rivers and lakes, they are the kidneys of the land as well. They are holding back nutrients that are running off the land. Of course, that's another issue, not only in Manitoba but around the country, involving algal blooms that are being exacerbated by higher levels of nutrients in the water.
There are a number of services that wetlands provide. From a policy development standpoint it's important to recognize wetlands not only for the wildlife benefits they provide, but also for the ecosystem services benefits they provide.