Wetlands Maze: Benefits

The Spring Creek, the Little Bear, Logan, and Blacksmith Fork Rivers are heavy in sediments and pollutants from farms, roads, and parking lots. Water slows down when it enters the Wetlands Maze area which lets sediments settle out. Plants get a chance to utilize the dissolved nutrients as they grow and some of the heavy metals are adsorbed onto the clay particles held by the plants' roots. After the plants die or enter dormancy in the fall, bacteria break down the plants' organic material for use by next year's growth. Human activities such as motorized boats disrupt this process by disturbing the sediments that are free to travel once more. These suspended sediments also cloud the water, blocking sunlight to submerged plants.
The thousands of acres of wet or gradually sloping lands around that make up the Cutler Marsh Wetlands Maze area receive surface water from incoming streams and ground water from underlying aquifers. The flat topography reduces the impact of sudden storms and heavy spring runoff by gradually releasing the water over a longer period.
The rise and fall of the reservoir - necessary for supplying water to downstream water rights holders and generating electric power - and wave action from wind can disturb the soils along the banks. Plants emerging from the marsh or growing along the edges of streams anchor the soil.
All life on earth starts with plants, and wetland plants grow faster and contribute more biomass than any other environment on the planet. Plants in the Cutler Marsh Wetlands Maze area feed insects, invertebrates, fish, birds and mammals, and these creatures in turn provide food for other creatures.
The Cutler Marsh Wetlands Maze is ideal for people to experience nature. Life is increasingly more urban and frenetic, and we need places such as wetlands where we can rediscover our role in the natural world and marvel at the wonders of our fellow creatures.

	Purify water.
	Store flood waters.
	Control erosion.
	Generate biomass.
	Offer quiet solace.

But, wetland habitats - in all kinds of wetlands - are really for wildlife!