The effects of the draining and destruction of wetlands across the country cannot be overstated. The landscape of the continent was permanently changed, and the ripple effects of these changes are still felt today. Waterfowl bred on wetlands, and as drainage projects increased, their breeding grounds shrank. By 1934 it was reported that in all of North America only 27 million waterfowl of all species remained- less than one fifth of the population in 1900. The devastation only continued from there; from 1940 to 1962 over 45 million acres of wetlands were drained. Historian Tim Flannery described the destruction of North America’s waterways as “Arguably the greatest blow ever struck by the European Americans at the continent’s biodiversity”. It continues to this day.
