Wetlands

Wetlands: Areas that are wet enough year-round to support certain plants

(usually have standing water and squishy mud)

  • Federally protected by the US Fish and Wildlife Services (USFWS) and the EPA

Importance:

  • Flood Control (acts like an sponge)

  • Recharging water table

  • Pollution Filtration/Balance Nitrogen Cycle (pull them out of water)

  • Oxygen Production ( 🔼 🌿 )

  • Productivity and Biodiversity( 🐟 and 🐦 )

    • Also..

      • Quiet and peaceful

      • Unusual plants

      • Nifty Creatures

        • bugs

        • amphibians

        • reptiles

        • fishes

        • featheries

        • furries

5 Major Types of Wetlands:

  • Saltwater Marsh

  • Freshwater Marsh

    • Characteristic:

      • Absence of trees ( ❌ 🌳 ) = need sunlight ( ☀ )

      • Often occur at edges of lakes, ponds, slow moving streams, etc.

    • Main plant: Cattails or phragmites

      • Purple loosestrife: NON-NATIVE INVASIVE PLANT (control wit Galerucella beetles)

      • Waterlillies

    • Animal ( 🐴 ):

      • Eastern Painted Turtle [also avoid snapping turtles]

      • Bass

      • Northern Green Frog

      • Garter Snake [remember “musk”=ewww]

      • Blue gill

      • Monarch butterflies [from duckweed and milkweed]

  • Freshwater Swamp

    • swamp: specific type of trees and shrubs

    • Characteristics:

      • NE swamps are just wet ( 💧 )

      • Southern swamps frequently carry standing or slow moving water

    • Main plant ( ☘ ):

      • Skunk Cabbage (creates its own heat and is an wild flower 🌼 )

      • Swamp Maple (roots have no standing water and if exposed will eventually die)

    • Animals:

      • Black Bear (because of the highbush blueberries) 🐻

      • Leopard Frogs and Bullfrogs

        • Coral Snake 🐍 (venimous and found near Florida)

          • “Red touches yellow, kill a fellow”

        • King/Milk Snake 🐍 (nonvenimous)

          • “Red touches black, good luck for Jack”

      • Bluegill 🐟

      • Bass 🐟

  • Bogs

    • Wetlands formed from glacial depression that have filled with water

    • Located in Northern NE, South Canada, British Isles, and Scandanavia

    • Characteristics:

      • Cold 🥶

      • Acidic 🧪 (plants), very little oxygen

    • Main plant:

      • ⭐ Sphagnum Moss

        mossspahg

        • evergreen trees

        • carnivorous plants

          • sundew (sticky traps that look like sea urchin)

          • pitcher plants (coned plants filled with fluid to drown bug)

        • cranberries

        • black spruce

    • Animals

      • Very few becuase..

        • high elevation ( 🔼 🏔 )

        • cold ( 🥶 )

    • Cool thing: MUMMIES 🐫

      • They were preserved VERY well