Restoration of the Iraqi marshes

From the Independent today:

One of the world's greatest marshland habitats - and home of an ancient culture - is beginning to show the first signs of recovery after decades of systematic destruction under Saddam Hussein.

An international scientific assessment of Iraq's drained wetlands, the first since they were partially reflooded after the downfall of Saddam, has found that the giant reeds are growing once more and the water birds and otters are returning. However, ecologists told the American Association for the Advancement of Science yesterday that some parts of the Iraqi marshes may never recover fully because of a build-up of salt in the soil during the time when they had been artificially dammed or drained.
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About a fifth of the 15,000 square kilometres of the marshes - which are twice the size of the Florida Everglades - have been reflooded since 2003, mainly as a result of the uncontrolled release of water from the two Iraqi rivers. The scientists, from Iraq's University of Basra and Duke University in North Carolina, found partial recovery in many regions but with some still suffering from high soil salinity.

Curtis Richardson, a wetlands expert at Duke University, told the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington DC that in the areas where recovery is going well, more than half of the species of birds have returned.

See also here and here. (Thanks: Brian C.)