Real Talk!

Areas where land and water come together and remain wet for an ecologically significant part of the year function as "ecotones"- in other words, a blending of different habitats.

"A wetland is land that is saturated with water long enough to promote wetland or aquatic processes as indicated by poorly drained soils, hydrophytic vegetation and various kinds of biological activity which are adapted to a wet environment."(Wetlands of Canada, Tarnocai et al., 1988)

Wetlands filter out sediment and pollution from the surrounding environment so that the water they discharge is cleaner that which entered the wetland. Acting like giant strainers, wetlands trap sediment and pollutants that are washed off the land. They can even improve water quality in areas where pesticides and fertilizers are used.

Grasses, sedges, and cattails stabilize the shorelines in wetlands by reducing the energy of waves, currents, and other erosive forces. Their roots trap sediments preventing the loss of valuable agricultural and residential land.Wetlands act like giant sponges holding large quantities of water and reducing floods. These lands hold water and gradually transfer it to groundwater reserves rather than having it flow overland.

Groundwater flows through underground rivers and rock deposits known as aquifers. It is the water from aquifers that is drawn by wells for human consumption. This water supply, however, can become diminished if too much water is drawn from them- however, wetlands replenish the supply. When water reaches the aquifer, it is cleaner than when it entered the wetland because it has been filtered through tiny spaces in the overlying rock. Where the water table rises above the level of the earth, the groundwater comes to the surface, nourishing a river, lake or wetland.

Historically, wetland ecosystems supplied food and resources to native people and early settlers. Today, river basins and their associated floodplains support over 90% of the world's population. People continue to use wetlands to grow wild rice and cranberries.

WILD RICE

Wetlands also provide habitat (food, water, shelter and space) for fish, birds, wildlife and insects, including more than one-third of the threatened and endangered species in North America.

Some examples of wetland plants include cattails, water horsetail, arrowheads, water lilies, pitcher plants, sundew, mosses and ferns. Sundews are small bog plants that eat insects. Sundew leaves have long hairs with sticky tips. Once an insect is stuck to the hair the leaves fold over to trap the prey and it is eventually digested.

Wetlands are used for fishing, hunting, boating, bird watching and other forms of outdoor recreation.

Four unique types of wetlands are found in Ontario.

1. MARSHES: Found along the shores of rivers and streams and in the shallows of ponds, lakes and sea coasts, marshes support a variety of floating and "emergent" plants- those rooted in the soil and growing out of the water such as Cattails and Arrowheads.

Commonly created by beaver activity, a marsh may be periodically or permanently covered in water.

GREAT BLUE HERON IN A MARSH

2. SWAMPS: Treed wetlands that may be isolated or found along rivers, streams and lakes, swamps are often formed due to flooding after spring snow melt. Swamps are most likely seasonal and may become quite dry in the summer. Typically there are trees in swamps- species may include Silver Maple, Black Ash, Black Spruce, White Cedar and Tamarack, or tall shrubs such as Willow, Alder and Dogwood.

SWAMP

3. BOGS: (Rare in Southern Ontario) Located in deep, bowl-like depressions, bogs are acidic and low in mineral nutrients. Filled with layers of peat (slowly decaying plant material)bogs have no drainage and are usually filled with stagnant water. Sphagnum moss, trees such as Black Spruce, and shrubs grow on this spongy base.

SPAGNUM MOSS

4: FENS: (Rare in Southern Ontario) Usually located in low-lying areas of northern Ontario, frens are a sedge dominated source from which water slowly flows in and out. A diverse community of sedges, rushes, grasses, low shrubs such Sweet gale and insect-eating plants such as Sundew live in fens. Fens may dry up completely in warm summer months.

FEN

33% of Ontario and 14% of Canada's land mass is covered by wetlands. Unfortunately, up to 90% of southern Ontario's wetlands have been lost to urbanization and agriculture.

Peat harvesting destroys many bogs and fens. Peat is harvested and used as a fuel source, for improving soils in gardens (also known as peat moss) and as an absorbent material in products such as diapers. Because it often takes 1000 years for a depth of 15 cm of peat to form in a wetland, it is considered to be a non-renewable resource just like coal, oil or natural gas.

Draining or filling in wetlands permanently destroys entire communities of plants and wildlife. Burning off or cutting down surrounding weeds, brush or other vegetation eliminates, at least temporarily, vital nesting places and escape cover.

Most major wetlands in Canada are protected because of their importance to North American waterfowl migratory routes. Many of these wetlands are reserves for hemispheric, international and regional migration routes. The hemispheric routes house over 500,000 birds during spring and fall migrations, 30% of the North American population. International routes shelter at least 100,000 birds while the regional routes provide resting stations for 20,000 birds, 5% of North American waterfowl.

The MNR maintains a system for evaluating wetlands to determine their significance for land use planning purposes.

http://www.on.ec.gc.ca/wetlands/intro-e.cfm

Did you know an oyster can filter 50 gallons of water per day?