By DOUG OBERHELMAN
There are few wetlands in this world that don’t offer feelings of solace to sheer emotions of awesome being. From the Everglades, the Pantanal in South America, the Boreal Forest in the northern hemisphere, the Prairie Potholes in the United States and Canada, to the beautiful restorations right here in Illinois, all invite deep thinking about their past, in many cases their degraded present, but great hope for a “back to the future” transformation.
After all, these wetlands, young and old, have one thing in common: They are wet, and that means water.
Water is life to everything from the songbirds in our back yards to waterfowl that require wetlands to reproduce and thrive.
It’s not only birds, but many animals, too. Otters, beavers, muskrats and many more all are required for healthy wetlands and clean water. And, of course, this all adds up to we humans needing more and more clean water every year.
Life is short without wetlands and water.
In my lifetime, I’ve been fortunate to see first-hand wetlands in many countries. As a young rep living in South America, fishing on the Paraguay River was an awesome, eye-opening experience: floating vegetative islands cruising by with the current full of exquisite flora and fauna, piranha taking our bait. It seemed every fish was exotic.
Twenty years later, I returned with Diane to the same exact spot and found a brown, silt-stained waterway, no islands, no birds and no beautiful flowers. What happened? Deforestation that allowed the country to grow and prosper. Bad news and good news.
It seems this is the conundrum of wetlands: The need to use them, drain them, farm them and develop them to provide for growing populations of people, while at the same time trying to preserve and restore those that can be remade to provide for life-giving qualities, natural beauty and tranquility.
A growing public awareness of the plight of wetlands and water is creating a wave of investments, government attention and “in the dirt” restoration. A recent and wonderful work of writing and photography, In The Spirit of Wetlands, proves how changes can and are being made. This book is a must-read for everyone and is proof public opinion is the power to drive these changes.
Fortunately, also through tremendous efforts by Ducks Unlimited, the Nature Conservancy, the Max McGraw Foundation and countless others — coupled with passionate conservation efforts of many individuals and philanthropists — this is a time of greater expectations than ever to get “back to the future” for wetlands and water restoration efforts.
For Diane and I, it’s an imperative and something we wish to leave to the next generations.
It’ll pay dividends like nothing else.
Doug Oberhelman was CEO of Caterpillar from 2010-2016 and is a vice president of Wetlands America. He lives in rural Kickapoo. He is featured in In The Spirit of Wetlands.