World Wetlands Day
Member states of the Ramsar Convention celebrate their local wetlands on February 2, as part of World Wetlands Day.
The treaty is an international cooperative effort with a goal of standardizing the way states organize, and implicitly protect, their wetlands areas. Convention members also maintain an explicit list of protected wetlands areas in each member state's jurisdiction. The list is called Wetlands of International Importance, and it refers wetland areas that attract multi-state interests as well as wetland areas of ecological significance.
The United States has a been a member state of the Ramsar Convention since 1987, and currently designates twenty two different wetlands areas on the Ramsar list. The Okefenokee Swamp, on the Georgia, Florida border, is one of the listed wetlands. Its international importance rests primarily on its size (400,000) and unique ecology. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife service describes the swamp's 7,000 year history, and it divides it into eight separate habitats.
Wetland areas need not receive special designation to be considered special. Generally, the term refers to any land area that is covered in water for an extended period of time. The interaction of land and water produces a multitude of ecosystems that provides benefits to human health, livelihood and social well being. For example, wetlands are commonly classified as natural watershed filters, and they help provide clean drinking water to local communities. Wetlands can also be a permanent or temporary home to many species of migratory birds, thus providing recreational opportunities for local communities.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) outlines four different types of wetland areas in the United States, marshes, swamps, bogs and fens, with geographic location and water source serving as differentiating factors.
Most people are familiar with the terms marshes and swamps. They refer to wetlands areas. Swamps are technically areas with a habitat dominated by trees or shrubs. Marshes are technically areas with a dominant grass or similar vegetative habitat. Swamps and marshes can be located in either coastal or inland regions.
Bogs and fens are the quaint names given to wetland areas generally linked to northern regions where glaciers once existed. Those land masses tend to be uneven and based on glacier melt patterns. Standing water is a common characteristic on glacially depressed land areas. The term bog technically refers to areas having rain as the primary freshwater source. Fens are land areas with an additional ground water source. The additional water source supports a more diverse ecosystem.
Member state of the Ramsar Convention invite you to take a moment on February 2, and join them celebrating them all.
© 2007. Patricia A. Michaels.