Happy World Wetlands Day! Today we celebrate the important ecological contributions of wetlands.
Wetlands, like the one pictured above, come in many shapes, types, and sizes. In today’s post, Mark Read, chief park naturalist at Murphys Point Provincial Park, takes us on a journey through one of the wetlands you may find at our parks.
Bog. Swamp. Fen. Marsh. Muck, mud and mire…
It sounds terrible, doesn’t it? When movie directors want to make things hard for their characters, they sometimes pick a wetland to chuck them into – think Humphrey Bogart in the classic movie “African Queen,” where he struggles day after day to pull his boat through an impenetrable swamp.
Wetlands get a bad rap, but they are hugely important to all of us.
Without them, things would be a lot more difficult on old Planet Earth. Like big sponges, they store water from snows and rains, and then let it out when things get dry. They provide rich habitats for plants and animals to live in, and they create “biodiversity”: the variety of life.
2017 was a remarkable year at John E. Pearce Provincial Park. Not only did the park celebrate its 60th anniversary, but it was also the grand opening of a multi-year wetland restoration project and Wetland “Storey” Trail.
Continue reading Wetland restoration wins big at John E. Pearce Provincial Park!
