For much of this nation’s history, wetland areas were a mistreated and misunderstood landscape. Converted into developments and drained for farmland, over half of the nation’s 221 million acres of wetlands were destroyed by the 1980s.  
Luckily, this trend has changed. Agencies like the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) are promoting the creation of new wetlands. The NRCS offers technical and financial assistance through easement programs for landowners to restore this crucial landscape. Since 1992, the NRCS in Mississippi has enrolled over 150,000 acres of wetlands through easements in the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP). The NRCS and its conservationists believe strongly in the value of wetlands. To date, more than 2 million acres of America’s wetlands have been enrolled in WRP nationally.  

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