Draining wetlands to make more room for meadows, fields and forests used to be common. But we need wetlands: they help us to take care of our water. Now landowners and Nyköpingsåarnas vattenvårdsförbund (the Water Management Association for the Nyköping Rivers) have recreated the Erkan wetland in Kiladalen, a century after it was drained. This wetland slows and conserves water.
The wetland fills up at high flows, and at low flows it slowly releases the water again. Fish and birds turn up here in a flurry of life in spring, and the land turns into pastureland later in the season when the water level is lower. The wetland removes nutrients from the water, thereby helping to reduce eutrophication in the Kilaån river and the Baltic Sea.
Erkan is a living example of how wetlands accommodate a range of functions that are valuable to both humans and nature.
