The importance of overlooked wetlands

A recent rainy spell has rekindled somewhat the time-worn debate over the value of wetlands, small ones in particular. North Dakota has hunreds of thousands of these small, shallow wetlands. They're often called temporary wetlands because they typically only hold water for a few weeks after spring snow melt, or after heavy summer rains like we had a couple of weeks ago. Most of the year, because of evaporation and water absorbtion into the ground, they are dry.