They were bigger than the everglades, older than the Bible -- until Saddam Hussein set out to decimate the cradle of civilization.

Now wetland experts in Wisconsin are helping restore historic wetlands in Iraq, reports News 3's Joel DeSpain.

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Restoring Iraqi Wetlands www.edenagain.org

Joy Zedler, who holds the Aldo Leopold chair in Restoration Ecology at the UW, and Dr. Rich Beilfuss, a hydrologist with Baraboo's International Crane Foundation, head the uncommon international restoration mission.

"It's an amazing area," Beilfuss said. "The Mesopotamian wetlands are probably something we all know a little bit about from childhood. It's the meeting of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. It's the birthplace of agriculture as we now it -- the birthplace of domestic livestock and so on. It's really where the world began in many ways."

It's also where Marsh Arabs thrived for 5,000 years. Then Saddam went after them with a vengeance.

"The reeds were burned off," Beilfuss said. "In many cases, the fishes were poisoned out of the waters, and ultimately the waters were removed."

Ninety percent of the wetlands were wiped out, and numbers of marsh Arabs plummeted to 20,000.

"As a wetland scientist and wetland lover, it's a phenomenal loss," Beilfuss said. "It's one we can hardly begin to appreciate in Wisconsin. You know we battle, in many ways, acre for acre in Wisconsin, and here we're talking almost 3,000 square miles."

Prior to the U.S.-led invasion , a prominent Iraqi-American placed a call to Madison, saying she had had gotten Zedler's name from the National Research Council.

"She asked if somebody was going try to restore Eden again -- as they put it in their story, in their project name, how would they go about it," Zedler said.

She in turn reached out to colleagues around the globe, including Beilfuss, and the advisory counsel to the Eden Again campaign began.

A small fraction of the wetlands have now been re-flooded.

"We almost haven't had time to grieve over it," Beilfuss said. "It's happened so quickly, and there's suddenly an opportunity to do something about it over it. It's happened so quickly, and there's suddenly an opportunity to do something about it. The world's barely come to terms with the loss from an educational stand point, and so we're already talking about how to fix it, because life marches on very quickly."

Because of the war, many wetland experts are advising from afar for now but hope to get hands-on experience as well someday.

Learn more at EdenAgain.com.