On a seasonably chilly mid-autumn morning along the riverfront in Canton, Mo., a couple dozen people worked away on a five-acre plot of land, removing invasive trees and planting native species.
Their goal: to transform this wetland.
“As opposed to just a pool of water that forms and anything can go in there. Now we’re going to try to change that,” said Dan Kelly.
Kelly organized this workday, the first one he’s put together since graduating in 2024 as a master naturalist through the Missouri Department of Conservation and the University of Missouri Extension.
He said master naturalists do community-based projects, such as roadside cleanups and bird counts.
In this case, he wanted to modify this wetland, which is separated from the Mississippi River by the levee that protects the town. He said the site is a holding area for water, but it’s turned itself into a natural wetland.
Students from Culver Stockton College provided some of the labor that day, and the city purchased the new, native trees.
As the day progressed, Kelly found their efforts transformative.
“In that it really, really shows itself as being a wetland. Just from a casual observation you can see it. Otherwise, you didn’t really know it was here before when all the trees were here,” Kelly said.
‘An incredible amount of intrinsic value’
Randy Smith of The Nature Conservancy said people should not think of wetlands as simply excess water or wasteland that could be converted to something else.
“Wetlands have an incredible amount of intrinsic value for what they are,” said Smith, who is the Illinois River Project Director for TNC. He’s involved with a couple major wetland restoration projects for the organization: Emiquon Preserve in Fulton County and Spunky Bottoms in Brown County.
Smith said wetlands are important not just to all the animal and plant species that live there, but they’re also valuable to humans because they purify drinking water by taking nutrients and pollutants out of the system through all of the plant life and natural cycling that occurs.
In addition, wetlands can hold excess water and slowly release it into the system to prevent flooding in communities or on farmland.
Wetlands also recharge groundwater aquifers and provide recreational opportunities.
“Just all sorts of valuable things, from getting outdoors and enjoying outdoor spaces to things that we really depend on, both economically and as a society,” Smith said.
But he said Midwestern wetlands, especially along big rivers, are highly altered, primarily by humans, leading to the degradation of wetlands.
“We don’t have wetlands to spare anymore, and so those that are remaining are critical to maintain,” Smith said.
“In the 1920s, when we saw equipment that was large enough to build levees along these rivers and drain these wetlands, we lost most of our floodplain wetlands from these large river systems in that time period.”
Helping wildlife get to the other side of the road
Dan Kelly’s workday on the Canton wetland included more than just the removal and planting of trees. He also organized several presentations on related topics, which were held at the Canton Public Library.
One of them featured Chris Shulse, Environmental Compliance Manager with the Missouri Department of Transportation.
He talked about a statewide MoDOT study to see where there are hot spots for collisions between vehicles and wildlife. He said the agency will determine the top ten and collaborate with experts who’ve worked on this around the country to figure out possible ways to mitigate such collisions.
The study started about a year ago when the department was awarded a federal highway grant. They’re looking to wrap it up early in 2026.
Schulse said one northeast Missouri hot spot appears to be between Wayland and Canton because of collisions between vehicles and some rare and unique animals.
“Specifically, a couple of state-endangered turtles that we’ve been aware of for many, many years. And we actually put up a turtle fence south of Wayland back in the late 2000s to keep turtles off the road up there,” Shulse said.
He said MoDOT has a page on its website where people can report collisions for the study.
Schulse said the department wants to make sure people are safe, and they want to protect wildlife at the same time.
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