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http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art24393.asp

Marian

Here's the article, in case some of you don't want to follow the link:

Animals of the Wetlands

How about if we say when it's wet, it's wet?
-- Vice President Dan Quayle, when asked
to define "wetlands".


Dan Quayle is the perfect example of someone who needs to learn a bit more about wetlands. With only six percent of the Earth's surface covered in wetlands, the loss of even a small wetland area can be an ecologic disaster. For years, due to the human need to expand our territories, wetlands were filled in, making way for shopping malls, roads, and homes. Many animals depend on wetlands for their very survival and if something isn't done soon, we may see more extinctions.

Animals that depend on wetlands include dragonflies, many other types of flies (mayfly, stonefly), water bugs (water scorpion, water strider), diving beetles, crayfish, snails, leeches, fish, snakes, turtles, and frogs. Some may look at that list and say "eh...what do we need those for." The animals listed are all part of a delicate balance. Some of them eat decaying matter, keeping the water clean. Others are prey for larger animals, such as birds. Wetlands also provide nesting sites and safe retreats for local and migratory animals.

If loss of animal life is not enough of an incentive to save the wetlands, consider these other benefits:
1. Flood control. Areas where wetlands have been filled in are frequently flooded, the water having no place to go or drain.
2. Groundwater replenishment and water purification. Wetlands are natural filters of groundwater, removing impurities. Wetlands store 97 percent of the world's unfrozen fresh water!!
3. Agricultural value. Wetlands can be used to grow rice (half the world's population eats rice) and raise fish commercially.

Threats to the wetlands include Timber Harvesting, Peat Mining, and Urban Growth. Pollution from nearby manufacturing plants (caused by runoff and airborne particles) are causing massive problems. Abnormal algae growth, poisons absorbed through a frog's delicate skin, and mutations are all being seen.

With the threat of West Nile virus, many would say, "what do we need wetlands for, they're only good for producing mosquitoes." How innocent a thought... and how dangerous to so many.

It isn't pollution that's harming the environment.
It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle

Marian

Thanks for sharing that with us, Marian. So much of the animal life that fascinates me is dependent upon the wetlands.

Just today when driving past a section of rolling farmland that is being converted into a new housing development, I was saddened to think of all the animals who would be displaced. Although many of the animals in the bulldozed hillsides have lost their homes, I suspect that the species most of them belong to are not likely to become extinct anytime soon.

How difficult it is to preserve wetlands, farmlands, woods and the like, when so many people are not aware of the consequences of their disappearance. It's a hard sell to convince many people that the preservation of wetlands is in their best interest.

Leequi

I don't know about other areas of the country, but in Alaska if one (and they have to have permits to do it) develops a wetland area, they are required to "create" an equal sized wetland area to replace the one developed. I know that this has been a huge deterent for many delelopers. It is very expensive and makes the wetland "not worth the price". This is just one way that Alaska has tried to protect it's environment.

Rose