DURHAM, N.C. – As the only American researcher to visit Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion,  has studied firsthand the devastating consequences of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s systematic draining of the country’s southern marshlands.

Richardson, director of the  and professor of resource ecology at the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, led U.S. Agency for International Development-sponsored expeditions to the region in June 2003 and in February and March of this year.

Working in volatile and potentially dangerous conditions, he collected water and soil samples to assess ecological and hydrological changes that have occurred as a result of damming, draining and water diversion in the historic Fertile Crescent between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers during Hussein’s rule. The area is thought by some to be the model for the Garden of Eden.

He’ll present his interim findings, along with images and impressions from his visits, at two major environmental gatherings this month.

On Tuesday, Oct. 26, he’ll present “The State of the Marshlands After the Draining of the Marshes,” during a panel discussion on “The Marsh Arabs of Iraq: The Legacy of Saddam Hussein and an Agenda for Restoration and Justice,” at New York University’s Kimmel Center.

On Thursday, Oct. 28, he’ll deliver the keynote introductory lecture, “Hydrological and Ecological Changes in the Iraqi Wetlands,” at a Harvard University symposium, “Mesopotamian Marshes and Modern Development: Practical Approaches for Sustaining Restored Ecological and Cultural Landscapes in Iraq.”

Once covering more than 20,000 square kilometers, Iraq’s southern marshes were destroyed as part of Hussein’s politically motivated efforts to uproot and exterminate the region’s Shi’a inhabitants, marsh dwellers who opposed his rule, Richardson says.

Government engineering programs drained more than 80 percent of the marshes between 1991 and 1997, he says. By 2001, the remaining wetlands had decreased in size by half. By 2003, only about seven percent of the original marshlands remained.

The rapid destruction of the marshlands threatens millions of native and migratory birds, and has all but erased the Mad’an culture, a way of life that dates back 5,000 years to the Sumerians, when people first inhabited artificial islands of mud and reeds between the Tigris and Euphrates and farmed the rich fields and fished the teeming waters there.

“This area was once famous for its biodiversity and cultural richness. The marshes were the permanent habitat for millions of birds and a flyway for billions more migrating between Siberia and Africa,” Richardson’s team’s noted in an interim report released in 2003. “Sixty-six bird species may now be at risk. Other populations are thought to be in serious decline.”

Coastal fisheries in the Persian Gulf relied on the marshlands for spawning migrations, and as nursery grounds for shrimp and fish. Fish catches in these waters have decreased significantly since the 1990s, Richardson says.

Water quality also has suffered, as marshes that once acted as natural filters for waste and other pollutants flowing downstream in the Tigris and Euphrates disappeared. Today, water quality along the Gulf coast of Kuwait is noticeably degraded.

Richardson is cautiously optimistic that at least part of the lost marshes can be restored. Small enclaves in the region recently have become reflooded as the result of a combination of factors, including heavier than usual snowmelt in the north, the decision by the Hussein regime to flood strategic locations in the former marshes to slow the advance of the U.S.-led coalition, and the deliberate destruction of Hussein-built dams and water-diverting structures by people in the area following the war.

Reclaiming larger swaths of the natural habitat that was lost will, however, take time, Richardson says, and widespread restoration may never be possible. Some local communities want the drained marshes left as farmland. Others believe there may be vast, untapped oil fields buried beneath the drained wetlands.

“These are new issues that have to be addressed,” he says.

Despite such negatives, some progress is being made, Richardson reports. On his visit earlier this year, he watched Iraqi researchers and students honing skills they'll need to resurrect targeted marshes. "They're very good scientists," he says. "They just haven't been trained in wetland ecology and management. We spent about 10 days working with them on how to set up a monitoring plan. I think it was very successful, and I want to finish that phase of the project.

"I'm also going to finish up the analysis of samples I've collected, and I'm going to be corresponding with some of the professors in Iraq," he says. But while Richardson promises to "be an advisor to help them, I really don't see myself working in Iraq for years," he adds. "It's not going to be possible for a lot of Westerners under current circumstances."

Sponsors of the Oct. 26 panel discussion, “The Marsh Arabs of Iraq,” at New York University (NYU) are the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs, the Environmental Conservation Education Program at NYU, the Al-Khoei Foundation and the Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at NYU. The panel discussion is being held in collaboration with the Oct. 26-28 Harvard University-sponsored symposium on “Mesopotamian Marshes and Modern Development.”

Richardson and his team published an interim report last year assessing strategies to sustainably manage the remaining Iraqi wetlands and restore some of what’s been lost. You can read the report by going online to  and scrolling down to the Iraqi marshland PDF link.

Portions of this article are excerpted from a Duke Dialogue story published earlier this year. You can read the full Dialogue story .