Iraqi Marshes

After hearing about the drained Iraqi marshes in class, I decided to search the topic in the New York Times for any updates. I found this article from 2005.

What Hussein did was an attack on the people and the land. While the people could relocate temporarily, the land was irreversibly damaged. After the fall of Hussein in 2003, the people of the town broke down the dike Hussein had installed. Just like the miraculous rejuvenating capabilities Wilson wrote of, the plants and animals started to return. Still, the marshes are nowhere near their past vibrancy, and some spots remain dry. An Iraqi marine scientist (who is part of a team of researchers monitoring the ecosystem’s renewal) estimates the marshes can make an 80 percent comeback. It goes to show that nature has some amazing capabilities when you give it a chance to rejuvenate, but still, you are left with an ecosystem fatally crippled by human intervention.