Rebuilding Wetlands and Waterfowl Resources in North and South America - Restorative Redevelopment of Devastated Ecocultural Landscapes - page 151

managing a state park in Brazil, and another project that deals with fire monitoring
(a major variable affecting landscape evolution in this region). So the Pantanal story
is a very successful example of capacity building and a valuable approach that is
important to carry to other areas, including Iraq.
d elta m arsh
Ducks Unlimited has been involved with other organizations in a major wetlands
ecology research project in Manitoba, Canada, called the Marsh Ecology Research
Program (MERP). This is a long-term (twelve-year), multidisciplinary study involv-
ing a series of replicated experiments dealing with the ecosystem, specifically exam-
ining the wet-dry cycle that is characteristic of wetlands in the northern prairies as
well as elsewhere. It is critical that this type of careful science be conducted because,
as described in chapter 6 for the Hula Swamp in Israel (an ecosystem with many
parallels to the marshes in southern Iraq), the eventual success of restoration efforts
may very well be predicated on a careful understanding of wetland soil aeration
during dry periods. Because all scientists recognize the value of trying to do mul-
tidimensional, multidisciplinary, experimental work at the ecosystem level, Ducks
Unlimited actually set out to engage in this research (Young and Batt 2004).
The work was undertaken in the Delta Marsh, a large and ecologically very sig-
nificant wetland in southern Manitoba (Figure 10.3). Experimental marshes were
established in which water levels were manipulated, and ensuing biological changes
were tracked. The objectives were to understand ecological processes: basically to
develop information, test ideas that already existed, and move the science of wet-
lands conservation further ahead. But Ducks Unlimited also wanted to take that
information and provide recommendations for the management of wetlands. And
as a side benefit, because many people are involved in doing this kind of work,
Ducks Unlimited wanted to engage students in the process so that they would receive
training and go on to become wetland scientists, or at least have empathy for wet-
land science. Such scientific education (see chapter 12 for one such example) will be
essential for creating a cadre of experts in the sustainable wetland management in
Iraq. Following the research the results were published in various places, including
the topic Prairie Wetland Ecology . As the restoration work unfolds in Iraq, there are
probably techniques and methods for dealing with this scale of wetlands that may
be helpful based on the work undertaken in the Phragmities marshes of southern
Manitoba (on an aside, as described in France 2011). It is interesting to note, based
on current geological theories, that Manitoba is intimately tied to the destruction and
creation of the original marshlands of Iraq seven thousand years ago as a result of the
cataclysmic draining of glacial Lake Agassiz, the largest freshwater body in history,
and consequent rise in global ocean levels which led to the breaching of the Strait of
Hormuz and creation of the Persian/Arabian Gulf.
r ing W ater B asin
The Ring Water Basin is located in Nebraska and is an important area for waterfowl
with up to 15 million birds staging there each spring. In fact, 30 to 50 percent of