The Netley-Libau Marsh

One of Manitoba’s largest marshes, the Netley-Libau Marsh, is sick after a decades-long invasion from plant species and pollutants, but the province promises to take measures to turn things around.

This wetland should act as a natural filter, preventing nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus from entering Lake Winnipeg. It has lost much of their effectiveness in recent years.

On September 24th, 2009 the province said it would spend $1 million to protect and restore Manitoba wetlands, especially the Netley-Libau Marsh. The money is to be used to provide incentives to farmers to restore lost wetlands. Let's hope this will be effective.

According to Christine Melnick, the water stewardship minister, "Lake Winnipeg’s Netley-Libau Marsh has declined in size, has lost many of its normal marsh plants, and sediment levels have increased significantly in the marsh waters.". She also

Visitors to this marsh decades ago would have witnessed, at this time of year, vast numbers of ducks and geese. Now they are more likely to be struck by the fact that they see and hear none. The lack of birds in Netley-Libau Marsh is a symptom of the degraded state that that important wetland is in, according to a university professor and director of the U of M.