Just over 50 years ago, in September 1956, nine concerned citizens met in a rustic inn to discuss the future of Maine’s open spaces. One of them became a prominent champion of preservation who helped forge an environmental consciousness in the United States. She was Rachel Carson.
The legendary environmental advocate – who would have celebrated her 100th birthday last month – was more than just forward-looking in wanting to protect New England’s remaining wild places. Indeed, the modern environmental movement that led to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s creation is also held by many to be in large part due to her groundbreaking 1962 book, “Silent Spring.”
Congress and the State of Maine helped recognize her lasting contributions in New England by establishing the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge in 1966. This Wells, Maine, preserve protects valuable wetlands – salt marshes and estuaries – for migratory birds and other wildlife.
As we commemorate Rachel Carson’s birthday, EPA is reflecting on our work to protect and help restore wetlands. Unlike some landscapes that immediately demand our attention and awe, wetlands are sometimes easy to overlook or disregard. However, the importance of wetlands in the overall health of our environment is hard to overstate.
Wetlands play a big role in ensuring clean and healthy drinking water, while also acting as a “natural sponge,” helping to reduce the effect of flooding in our communities.
First, consider the role our region’s forests and wetlands play in keeping our drinking water – both below and above ground – clean and abundant. The leaves on trees, shrubs and ground plants, in a forest or a bog, help slow a storm’s rainfall before it hits the ground. This buffering allows water more time to seep into the ground instead of running directly into streams and rivers.
Then, as rainwater percolates slowly through spaces between soil particles and cracks in rocks, it is naturally filtered. In some locations, the groundwater that accumulates becomes a natural underground reservoir, or an aquifer. Rainwater that stays above the ground can end up in a wetland – a natural holding area for extra sediment and other contaminants that filters the water before it flows into our lakes and rivers.
The EPA has recognized aquifers as essential components of our region’s drinking water supply for a long time. In fact, we have officially designated several aquifers as “sole source” – a special category for those that are the only source of drinking water for at least 50 percent of an area’s population and that, if polluted, would leave citizens with no alternate source of healthy water.
One such water supply underlies an area straddling the border between Connecticut and Rhode Island, the “Borderlands.” A 46,000-acre landscape of forests, streams and wetlands, the Borderlands is the largest ecologically intact forested system remaining between Boston and Washington, D.C. Permanent protection of a key 1,647-acre parcel of forests and wetlands overlying the sole-source aquifer was recently accomplished through the coordinated efforts of public and private organizations, safeguarding an irreplaceable source of clean water for future generations.
Another important protected wetland is the California Brook Conservation Area, a 3,500-acre swath of virtually undeveloped forest and wetlands in New Hampshire. EPA has been able to help this wildlife habitat by partnering with state, local and regional groups and providing seed money to a land trust to permanently protect nearly 1,000 acres.
Rachel Carson’s voice raised above the din during a unique moment in our country’s history, when her warnings about chemicals in the environment and loss of wild places foreshadowed the work that the EPA and many other groups continue to this day.
While her time here was too short, it’s a remarkable tribute to her life and professional passion that, decades later, her message still rings clear and inspires worldwide efforts for a cleaner and healthier environment.
Robert W. Varney is regional administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s New England regional office in Boston. To learn more, visit www.epa.gov/region1.
