What Is a wetland?

Although wetlands are often wet, a wetland might not be wet year-round. In fact, some of the most important wetlands are only seasonally wet. Wetlands are the link between the land and the water. They are transition zones where the flow of water, the cycling of nutrients, and the energy of the sun meet to produce a unique ecosystem characterized by hydrology, soils, and vegetation – making these areas very important features of a watershed. Using a watershed-based approach to wetland protection ensures that the whole system, including land, air, and water resources, is protected.

Wetlands found in the United States fall into four general categories – marshes, swamps, bogs, and fens. Marshes are wetlands dominated by soft-stemmed vegetation, while swamps have mostly woody plants. Bogs are freshwater wetlands, often formed in old glacial lakes, characterized by spongy peat deposits, evergreen trees and shrubs, and a floor covered by a thick carpet of sphagnum moss. Fens are freshwater peat-forming wetlands covered mostly by grasses, sedges, reeds, and wildflowers.

Good News
Often called “nurseries of life,” wetlands provide habitat for thousands of species of aquatic and terrestrial plants and animals.

Although wetlands are best known for being home to water lilies, turtles, frogs, snakes, alligators, and crocodiles, they also provide important habitat for waterfowl, fish, and mammals. Migrating birds use wetlands to rest and feed during their cross-continental journeys and as nesting sites when they are at home. As a result, wetland loss has a serious impact on these species. Habitat degradation since the 1970s has been a leading cause of species extinction.

Wetlands do more than provide habitat for plants and animals in the watershed. When rivers overflow, wetlands help to absorb and slow floodwaters. This ability to control floods can alleviate property damage and loss and can even save lives. Wetlands also absorb excess nutrients, sediment, and other pollutants before they reach rivers, lakes, and other water bodies. They are great spots for fishing, canoeing, hiking, and bird-watching, and they make wonderful outdoor classrooms for people of all ages.

Bad News
Despite all the benefits provided by wetlands, the United States loses about 60,000 acres of wetlands each year. The very runoff that wetlands help to clean can overload and contaminate these fragile ecosystems. In addition, nonnative species of plants and animals and global climate change contribute to wetland loss and degradation.

Working Together to Protect and Restore Wetlands
In addition to providing regulatory protection for wetlands, federal government agencies work in partnership with states, tribes, and local governments, the private sector, and citizen organizations to monitor, protect, and restore these valuable habitats.

First, identify your watershed and find the wetlands in your neighborhood. Learn more about them and share what you learn with someone you know! Encourage neighbors, developers, and state and local governments to protect the functions and values of wetlands in your watershed.

To prevent wetland loss or degradation, follow these simple guidelines:

• Participate in a volunteer wetland monitoring program.
• Support your local watershed association.
• Plan a wetland program or invite a wetland expert to speak at your school, club, youth group, or professional organization.
• Invest in wetlands by buying duck stamps. Proceeds from these $15 migratory bird hunting stamps support wetland acquisition and restoration. The stamps are available online at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s web site (www.fws.gov) or at your local post office.
• Instead of draining or filling wetlands, find more compatible uses, such as waterfowl and wildlife habitat.
• When developing your landscaping plan, keep wetlands in mind. Plant native grasses or forested buffer strips along wetlands on your property to protect water quality.
• Plan to avoid wetlands when developing or improving a site. Get technical assistance from your state environmental agency before you alter a wetland.
• Maintain wetlands and adjacent buffer strips as open space.
• Build a wetland in your backyard. Learn how by visiting the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s web site.

National and International Citizen Science Projects

FrogWatch USA
https://www.aza.org/frogwatch
FrogWatch USA is a citizen science program that allows individuals and families to learn about the wetlands in their communities and help conserve amphibians by reporting the calls of local frogs and toads. For over ten years, volunteers have been trained to enter their FrogWatch USA information and ongoing analyses of these data have been used to help develop practical strategies for the conservation of these important species.

Volunteer Monitoring
From the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
http://www.epa.gov/polluted-runoff-nonpoint-source-pollution/nonpoint-source-volunteer-monitoring
Volunteer monitors are people who measure the water quality of lakes, streams, rivers,  estuaries, and other bodies of water. In most programs they take water samples and either send them to a laboratory or analyze the water themselves using portable water quality test kits.

Journey North
https://journeynorth.org/
Journey North is a free internet-based program that explores the interrelated aspects of seasonal change.  Two Journey North projects relate to wetlands.  With “Unpave the Way for Wildlife,” teachers and classrooms can help wildlife through butterfly gardening and other forms of habitat restoration. By creating these backyard refuges–on the breeding grounds, wintering grounds, and everywhere along the migratory path–you can help ensure that the annual migrations to and through your region continue. Journey North also follows migrating Whooping Cranes during their migration.

May Is American Wetlands Month: Learn! Explore! Take Action!
http://www.epa.gov/wetlands/may-american-wetlands-month-learn-explore-take-action
May is American Wetlands Month, a time when EPA and its partners in federal, state, tribal, local, non-profit, and private sector organizations celebrate the vital importance of wetlands to the Nation’s ecological, economic, and social health. It is also a great opportunity to discover and teach others about the important role that wetlands play in our environment and the significant benefits they provide – improved water quality, increased water storage and supply, reduced flood and storm surge risk, and critical habitat for plants, fish, and wildlife.

Mossom Creek Hatchery
http://www.mossomcreek.org/
Mossom Creek Hatchery is a salmon hatchery in Port Moody, British Columbia. It is a salmon enhancement project supported by Fisheries and Oceans Canada. It was started in 1976 by high school volunteers from local Centennial School in Coquitlam and teachers Ruth Foster and Rod MacVicar. They formed the Centennial School Salmon project which is still an active club at the school. It has received much recognition for its unique and longstanding work.

When the hatchery began, there were no salmon left in Mossom Creek. Thanks to the tireless efforts of volunteers over the decades there is now a strong run of Chum Salmon and an increasing run of Coho Salmon. The hatchery also supplies fish to other streams that drain into Burrard Inlet. By reintroducing these salmon, the hatchery strengthens the surrounding ecosystem at various trophic levels. Every year the hatchery releases approximately 100,000 Chum fry into the area and between 5,000 and 10,000 Coho smolts.

National Public Lands Day
http://www.publiclandsday.org/
National Public Lands Day (NPLD) is the nation’s largest, single-day volunteer event for public lands in the United States, and many of these activities involve wetlands. NPLD educates Americans about critical environmental and natural resource issues and the need for shared stewardship of these valued, irreplaceable lands; builds partnerships between the public sector and the local community based upon mutual interests in the enhancement and restoration of America’s public lands; and improves public lands for outdoor recreation, with volunteers assisting land managers in hands-on work.

Salmonids in the Classroom
From Fisheries and Oceans Canada
http://www.salmonidsintheclassroom.ca/
This is a program of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, which supports salmon incubation in schools. Raising salmon in the classroom is an opportunity to teach students to understand, respect and protect freshwater, estuarine and marine ecosystems, and to recognize how all humans are linked to these complex environments.

Shad in the Schools
http://www.fws.gov/raleigh/sis.html
A number of schools on the East Coast are involved in raising shad. American shad is a migratory fish that used to be prevalent in many river systems on the East Coast. The fish spawns in freshwaters and lives most of its life in the ocean. It plays a very important part of the food chain in these river systems, and American shad played a significant role in the survival of the indigenous people and the first settlers to the New World.

Whether you release one American shad fry or 1,000, students will have hands-on activities that will help them learn about food webs, river basins, mapping activities, water quality, and river flow rates. There are several extension activities where students can expand their learning and earn a certificate, or find their ecological footprint.

Stream Monitoring with PathFinder Science Network
http://www.pathfinderscience.net/stream/
Monitoring streams is a simple but effective way to understand the natural world. Stream monitoring can provide a quick check on the health of the entire watershed, since, whatever happens on the land ends up in the water, sooner or later. Streams can be monitored for many traits and in many ways. This project looks at steams in four different ways. We will examine closely the physical, chemical, and biological nature of our streams. Testing the water quality, survey fish and wildlife habitat, and keeping abreast of land uses in the entire watershed allows you to become an extra set of eyes and ears for interested agencies and ensure that your stream is looked after on a regular basis. Even more importantly, you can become an informed citizen who can collect information to create new on knowledge about our environment.

Watershed Land Trust, Inc.
http://www.watershedinstitute.biz/Watershed_Land_Trust_local_chapter.html
The WLT Adopt-A-Wetland Program is a hands-on education program that promotes wetland
conservation and land stewardship through volunteer monitoring.   Thousands of wetlands are impacted and also created/restored as a result of highway and bridge construction.  The Adopt-A-Wetland program can be in conjunction with the Adopt-A-Highway program established in the late 1980’s.  These wetlands are often forgotten and neglected.

The goals are to:
1. Educate the public on the importance of wetlands
2. Increase public awareness of water quality issues
3. Train students and citizens to monitor and protect wetlands
4. Collect baseline wetland health data
5.  Move the curriculum outdoors
6.  Assist Departments of Transportation and others in monitoring and improving our natural resources.

World Water Monitoring Day
http://www.monitorwater.org/
World Water Monitoring Day™ is an international education and outreach program that builds public awareness and involvement in protecting water resources around the world by engaging citizens to conduct basic monitoring of their local water bodies.

State and Local Citizen Science Projects

Many states and local areas of citizen science and/or volunteer activities involving wetlands and watersheds. Here are a few of those organizations but research your area and state for more.

California
Watsonville Wetlands Watch
http://www.watsonvillewetlandswatch.org/citizen_science.htm
Project Tierra is a citizen science wetland biodiversity monitoring project in which students of all ages collect and record environmental data over the long-term to monitor the biodiversity and overall health of the Watsonville wetlands. The overarching goal of Project Tierra is to provide ongoing data regarding water quality, plant populations and bird populations to the scientific community that will inform wetland conservation and land management decisions in the Pajaro Valley. We are especially interested in using this data to evaluate the success of Watsonville Wetlands Watch restoration projects and guide the adaptive management of these lands.

Oregon
Citizen Science Team
http://rainiervolunteers.blogspot.com/2010/01/current-volunteer-opportunities.html
Help gather baseline data about Mount Rainier National Park’s natural resources, including amphibian populations and wetland resources and soundscape monitoring, from July through September. Some projects require simple day-trips off park roads, while others may occur deep in the park’s wilderness and involve multiple days in the backcountry.

Birds, fish, and other species don’t recognize international borders and need wetlands and habitats located in different countries in order to survive.  Many of wetland fauna, including some fish species, waterbirds, insects such as butterflies and dragonflies, and mammals such as otters, are migratory species whose conservation and management also require international cooperation.

In addition, many wetlands are systems that lie across the boundaries of two or more countries, or are part of river basins that include more than one country. The health of these wetlands is dependent upon the quality and quantity of the transboundary water supply from rivers, streams, lakes, or underground aquifers. Well managed transboundary water resources increases biodiversity and conservation of natural resources. (From the Ramsar Convention)

The Pacific Flyway, extending from Alaska to Patagonia, is a major north-south route of travel for millions of migratory birds. Every year, migratory birds travel some or all of this distance both in spring and in fall, following food sources, heading to breeding grounds, or travelling to overwintering sites. (From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Flyway)

Consider the migration of the Pacific Golden-Plover. This species breeds chiefly along the Arctic coast of Siberia and in limited areas of the Alaskan coast. Some of the birds probably migrate south through Asia to winter quarters in Japan, China, India, Australia, New Zealand, and the islands of Oceania. Others go south across the Pacific to Hawaii and other islands in the central and southern Pacific. Migrating golden-plovers have been observed at sea on a line that extends from the Aleutian Islands to Hawaii. While it seems incredible that any birds could lay a course so accurately as to make landfall on these small, isolated, oceanic islands, 2,000 miles south of the Aleutians, 2,000 miles west of Baja California, and nearly 4,000 miles from Japan, year after year Pacific Golden-Plovers make this transoceanic round-trip.

Some wetlands along the Pacific Rim are particularly notable:

Canada – Fraser River Delta and Boundary Bay, British Columbia

The Fraser River is the longest river in British Columbia, Canada originating in the Rocky Mountains near Mount Robson and flowing for 1400 km (870 mi), into the Pacific Ocean at the city of Vancouver.

The Fraser River is at a critical crossroads along the Pacific Flyway.  The paths of many migrant birds converge at the Fraser River Delta. Its location mid-way along the Pacific Coast makes it an international crossroads of bird migration routes from 20 countries and three continents. Waterfowl and shorebirds from breeding grounds in Siberia, Alaska, Yukon, and other arctic and prairie areas all stop to refuel in the Fraser River estuary on their way to wintering grounds in California, Mexico, Central and South America or the South Pacific.

Coastal lowlands and marshes of the estuary provide critical refueling opportunities for long-distance migrants such as the Lesser Snow Goose, which nests in Wrangel Island (Russia) and sometimes makes non-stop flights of over 2,500 km in its southward migration to wintering grounds.

Almost all of the world’s population of western sandpipers stop to rest and refuel during their massive migrations between Alaska nesting grounds and wintering sites from California to Peru. In addition, more than 35 other shorebird species rely on this estuary throughout the year.

Green-winged Teal, American Wigeon, Gadwall, Northern Shoveler, Northern Pintail, Lesser Snow Geese, Trumpeter Swans are the most commonly-observed waterfowl species seen inshore. In deeper waters, large rafts of diving ducks such as Greater and Lesser Scaup and Surf Scoters congregate, along with Double-Crested Cormorants, Western Grebes and many species of gulls. Dunlin and Western Sandpipers feed in flocks of thousands on intertidal mudflats, marshes and lowland habitats inland of the dykes. Bald Eagles, Northern Harriers, Red-tailed Hawks, Peregrine Falcons and Short-Eared Owls are just some of the birds of prey to be seen in the river delta. For some species such as the Barn Owl, the delta represents the only site in Canada with mild enough winters for the species to remain year-round.

British Columbia’s estuaries are among the richest in the world. The Fraser River is home to over 400 species of vertebrates, thousands of plants, and a myriad of small invertebrates.

The Fraser River forms the largest estuary along the Pacific Coast of North America and drains over 200,000 square kilometers of British Columbia.  River sediments meet the currents of the Strait of Georgia and are deposited onto the nearly 30,000 hectares of the estuary’s intertidal marshes and mudflats.

The climate is mild, and there are plentiful foods ranging from marine fish and invertebrates to grasses, rodents, and amphibians. Millions of birds all congregate at the mouth of this river, providing a wonderful wildlife viewing spectacle.

The Fraser River is the largest producer of salmon on the entire Pacific Coast of North America. Annually, millions of anadromous (migratory) adult salmon migrate upstream to spawn along small streams along its length and up into the connected waterways.  Millions of young fish hatching in these areas spend their early life cycle in these upper reaches, and eventually descend to the estuary on their way out to oceanic habitats. Estuarine marshes, mudflats, floodplains, sloughs and river channels are all critical feeding and rearing areas for these and other fish during their transition between river and marine stages of their life cycle. Pacific Herring, Sturgeon, Eulachon, and Smelt are also abundant fisheries locally, as are Dungeness crab, shrimp and other invertebrates.

The Fraser River Estuary has received global recognition as a Wetland of International Significance and has been proposed as a WSHRN site. (The abbreviation WSHRN stands for the Western Hemispheric Shorebird Reserve Network, an international initiative to identify and protect habitats in key stopover points used by shorebirds during their long migrations across North and South America (the Western Hemisphere). The Fraser delta ranks very highly, since almost all of the world’s population of western sandpipers stop to rest and refuel during their massive migrations between Alaska nesting grounds and wintering sites from California to Peru. In addition, more than 35 other shorebird species rely on this estuary throughout the year.

(From the British Columbia Waterfowl Society: http://www.reifelbirdsanctuary.com/fraser.html)

Japan – Sarufutsu River Wetlands

Sarufutsu Town is located 30-40 km south from Cape Soya, Japan’s northernmost point in Wakkanai city, on the side of the Okhotsk Sea. It comprises a mosaic of lagoons, wetlands, and rivers in the vast wilderness of Sarufutsu and visitors are greeted with its intact nature. There are 6 rivers running through the Sarufutsu wilderness including the Sarufutsu River with their headstreams flowing from Soya Hills. They run gently and windingly into the Sea of Okhotsk due to their small elevation gains up to their upper reaches. Four in those six rivers – the Sarufutsu,  Chiraibetsu, Sarusuberi, and Onishibetsu rivers – support the populations of Itou (sea-run taimen).

The Sarufutsu River is inhabited by the largest number of sea-run taimen in Hokkaido and one of the few rivers supporting a stable taimen population. The river slowly flows through wetlands and there is almost no visibility in deep water in its lower reaches. With its grandeur and dynamic flow, this spectacular river is definitely the perfect habitat for Itou, the “Phantom Fish.” Most lagoons in this river system including Poro-numa are connected to the Sarufutsu River and are also habitats for sea-run taimen. (From the Sarufutsu Itou Conservation Council: http://www.sarufutsu-icc.gr.jp/english/rivers_in_sarufutsu_town/revers_in_sarufutsu/index.html)

China

China’s wetlands include 10 percent of all the wetlands in the world. These wetland areas not only are vital to the earth’s ecology but also are attractive places for people for birding and observing other wildlife, fishing (both commercial and recreational), and development of ecotourism and environmental education.  Among the many protected wetlands in China, the 21 sites have been designated as Wetlands of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, joined by China in 1992.  The total area of these 21 sites presently covers a surface area of 3.03 million hectares.   (From China’s 21 Wetlands of International Importance: http://www.china.org.cn/english/TRsummer/73150.htm)

Panama – Panama Bay

Panama is a small Central American country bordered on the northwest by Costa Rica and on the southeast by Columbia. Operation of the Panama Canal, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, is one of the main industries of the country. Panama’s tropical environment supports an abundance of plants and animals.

Every year, the Upper Bay of Panama is visited by as many as two million shorebirds traveling between North and South  America via the Isthmus of Panama.  Counts of shorebirds along the Panama coast at times exceed 10,000 per kilometer.  The site is used by more than 30 percent of the world female population of Western Sandpiper (Calidris mauri) and is globally important for at least six other shorebird species. Based on these high migratory bird counts, the area has been recognized as a Site of Hemispheric Importance by the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve
Network (WHSRN).

Shorebirds are threatened by many factors, including habitat destruction, pollution and human disturbance.  More than a quarter of all North America’s shorebird species and subspecies are in serious decline, according to WHSRN.  Some, such as the New World race of Red Knot (Calidris canutus), will become extinct within present lifetimes if current trends are not halted.

The Upper Bay of Panama is the first site in Central America to join the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network (WHSRN), a partnership of organizations working to protect shorebirds and their habitats through a network of key sites across the Americas. Because of its importance to migratory birds, BirdLife identified the bay as an Important Bird Area (IBA) in 2003. It is also on the Ramsar list of wetlands of international importance.

“For the past seven years, the Panama Audubon Society has been working to preserve the wetlands of the Upper Bay of Panama,” said Rosabel Miró, president of the Panama Audubon Society.  “The Bay of Panama, which is the first site in Central America to be part of the WHSRN network, is a critical site for migratory shorebirds. Preserving this annual spectacle can only be done through international cooperation, an increasingly obvious requirement for protecting the world’s ecosystems.”

(From BirdLife International http://www.birdlife.org/news)

Russia – Kamchatka Krai

Kamchatka is recognized as one of the World Wildlife Fund’s Global 200 Ecoregions, due to its globally significant biodiversity. Its ecosystems include arctic and alpine tundra, boreal coniferous forests, temperate deciduous forests, freshwater lake ecosystems, freshwater wetlands, and marine inshore waters.

Russia’s 1000-mile long Kamchatka Peninsula contains a vast network of rivers that remain free-flowing from headwaters to ocean and are virtually unaltered by human development. This region produces up to one-fourth of all wild Pacific salmon and hosts the greatest diversity of salmonid species on Earth.

Many of Kamchatka’s rural and indigenous people still rely on salmon for basic needs. Salmon support one in five jobs in Kamchatka and provide food for over 137 species. Kamchatka provides nesting and stopover sites for millions of waterfowl, supports the largest wintering area for Steller’s sea eagles, and hosts the highest brown bear density in the world.

(From the Wild Salmon Center: https://www.wildsalmoncenter.org/work/where-we-work/russia/)

United States (Alaska) – Copper River Delta

The Copper River winds between the rugged Chugach Mountains and meets the Gulf of Alaska just east of the coastal community of Cordova. Along with the town’s remote location, the prized Sockeye and King Salmon that return each year drive the town’s economy and give Cordova a unique Alaskan flavor.

The Copper River runs 287 miles through Southcentral Alaska from the headwaters in the Alaska Range to the tidal mudflats bordering the Gulf of Alaska. Linked to five other glacial rivers and their wetlands on the perimeters of the Copper River, the Delta forms the largest continuous wetland on the North Pacific coast.

Tidal flats and sloughs, saltwater marshes, estuaries, freshwater ponds, and waterlogged muskeg (peat soils) of the Copper River Delta compose this vast interwoven wetland of 700,000 acres. The Copper River Delta provides abundant vegetation and endless mud flats for shorebirds and other animals to feast.

Five to seven million shorebirds visit the Copper River Delta every spring. The Delta has 36 species of shorebirds, primarily Western Sandpipers and Dunlins. South of the marshes of the Delta, the tidal mud flats present migrating birds with tasty, energy-rich morsels like pink Macoma clams and marine worms. Some shorebirds remain on the Delta to breed, but most head further north to other Alaskan wetlands. The Copper River Delta is a major stopover site in the western hemisphere, making this wetland a vital link in the chain of wetlands.

In the summer months, “The Copper” carries a million metric tons of sediment each day and dumps it along its meandering journey to the sea. The Copper adds more sediment to the Pacific Ocean than any other source. Six glacial rivers contribute to the Copper River’s enormous load, which has formed over thousands of years the 600-foot deep mud flats at its mouth. These mud flats offer shorebirds a feast of mollusks and other invertebrates living beneath the surface.

The Cordova Ranger District of the U.S. Forest Service manages this magnificent wetland habitat primarily for fish and wildlife. The savored salmon runs of the Copper River depend on the cold, silty waters as a highway to the streams where they hatched and will lay the eggs of the next generation. In addition, brown bear, black bear, moose, wolves, coyotes, mountain goat, sheep, Stellar sea lions, trumpeter swans, and three species of amphibians make the Copper River Delta their home.

(From Migration Science and Mystery: A Distance Learning Adventure: http://migration.pwnet.org/stopovers/cordova_where.php)

United States (Alaska) – Copper River Delta San Francisco Bay and Richardson Bay, California

Richardson Bay is a shallow, ecologically rich arm of San Francisco Bay managed under a Joint Powers Agency of four Northern California cities. The Richardson Bay Sanctuary was purchased in the early 1960s by the Audubon Society. Richardson Bay is considered one of the most pristine estuaries on the Pacific Coast in spite of its urbanized periphery, since it supports extensive eelgrass areas and sizable undisturbed intertidal habitats. It is a feeding and resting area for a panoply of estuarine and pelagic birds, while its associated marshes and littoral zones support a variety of animal and plant life.

Richardson Bay has been designated as an Important Bird Area (or IBA), based upon its large number of annual bird visitors and residents, its sightings of California clapper rail and its strategic location in the flyway. The bay’s waters are subject to a “no discharge” rule to protect the elaborate and fragile ecosystems present, including a complex fishery, diverse mollusk populations and even marine mammals such as the harbor seal.

Richardson Bay is an important ecological area being managed by the Audubon Society as the Richardson Bay Sanctuary. There are significant resources, marsh birdlife, mammalian species and marsh plants.