Agricultural drainage destroyed half of America’s original wetlands

Evidence

As a result, America has lost half of its wetlands. It is estimated that 458,000 acres of U.S. wetlands were lost annually between 1954 and 1974—87 percent due to agricultural conversion. The state of Florida contains 20 percent of the nation’s wetlands and lost over eight million acres between 1850 and 1984. From 1960 to 1984 alone, south Florida permanently lost one-fourth of its wetlands. — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations, 166

Categorization

• XREF: Quantified land-use change here pairs directly with the land-use history thread from Reading the Landscape. — connects to: Everglades National Park creation displaced Seminole families from their homes — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations: Native Struggles for…, 185; Drained marshland carries its whole lost community to extinction unnoted — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac: With Other…, 573; Agricultural marsh draining caused 90 percent loss of U.S. wetlands — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 833
• SEED: The 87-percent-agriculture figure for wetland loss is a ready-made stat for an eco-justice essay on drainage-as-colonization.

Broader Connections

• Agricultural marsh draining caused 90 percent loss of U.S. wetlands #corroborates (0.95) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 833