Down To Earth 
Specialists in Education, Leadership & Training

Phone: 905 - 627- 3140  
Fax:     905 - 627- 8100      

     Wetlands are Awesome!

Wetlands are natural reservoirs for water and for wildlife.  Wetlands are ecosystems.  Made up of communities of plants and animals that depend on the presence of water or wet soils to survive.  Some wetland areas can be easily canoed, where others are dry enough to walk over, and yet both types serve the same function of holding water. 

Different types of plants and animals are supported for their food, shelter and water.  Some wetlands are full of water plants that grow low in the surfaces, and sometimes underwater.  Other wetlands may have tall trees and shrubs.  All types are home to amazing creatures such as deer, owls, moles and rabbits.

Importance of Wetlands

• Wetlands are natural filters which help purify our water.

• Wetlands provide important cover and food for many species of birds, insects and mammals.

• Wetlands can help reduce or control flooding.  They act as natural reservoirs and increase stream flows in the dry months.

• Wetlands provide a vital habitat for many rare and endangered species of plants and animals.

• Wetlands are sometimes the only wilderness remaining in rural or urban environments.

• Marshes, swamps, bogs and fens are the types of wetlands found in Ontario.

Fens  Fens are wetlands that are mostly made up of a group of grass-like plants with triangular stems, called sedges.  They occur where you have slightly acidic or alkaline water.  Rare Ontario wildflowers such as orchids require the unique acidic water chemistry of fens to be able to grow and prosper.  Trees in this type of wetland are usually tamarack (larch) or cedar.

Marshes  These wetlands usually have a lot of open water. They are the youngest wetland type.  Lots of plants grow in and around the water such as cattail, water lily and underwater vegetation such as coontail.  Our Ontario freshwater marshes use sunlight to convert water and nutrients into living matter more efficiently than most other ecosystems!   For this reason more food is available for a greater variety of  insects, amphibians and reptiles, fish, birds and mammals than the other wetland types.

Swamps  Swamps are wetlands that are mostly made up of shrubs and trees.  Cedar swamps would be an example of this, with water 'just below the ground surface'.  An abundant supply of winter food is critical for white-tailed deer, swamps are a vital food source.  They can carry important foods such as red maple saplings, dogwood and cedar. These wetlands are an important water storage.  They can help prevent drought conditions by slowly releasing water during dry summer months.

Bogs  Bogs are more common in Northern Ontario, being rare in Southern Ontario.  Bogs are 'ancient' wetlands.  Most of the nutrients that enter a bog come from the rain water.  These are known as nutrient poor ecosystems and therefore are low producers of vegetation to support a large variety of life.  Carnivorous plants, such as the pitcher plant and sundew have adapted to the acidic, nutrient poor soil of bogs.  These plants obtain important nutrients from insects they capture for 'feeding'.

In all ecosystems, plant life forms the base of the food chain.  Wetlands are not static systems.  They are constantly changing through the process of natural succession.  Marshes succeed into swamps, and fens.  Fens into bogs.  Fens and Bogs are ecologically old and are therefore more sensitive to disturbance and human intervention.

 

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