IMN Program: Learning About Wetlands

This week the focus of the Indiana Master Naturalist program was on wetlands. Our teacher was Kate Sanders. Kate has a M.S. in Biology with a focus on stream ecology, fish communities, and ecotoxicology. She has worked with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture Research Service. Beyond that she has worked in aquaponics and restoration. It was clear that Kate knows wetlands.

Our study of wetlands was in two parts, classroom instruction and field experience. Both were enlightening. In class we were introduced to Indiana related history, to definitions, and to the issues related to todays’ wetlands. We learned that since the 1700s Indiana has lost 85% of its original wetlands. This is important because wetlands provide home and food for rich, diverse, biological communities. However, it is also clear that the wetlands were not drained because we were driven to destroy native ecosystems. Rather, the “Swamps” of the day were impediments to progress. Transportation was difficult. Farming was difficult. Disease in the form of mosquito born illnesses were rampant and deadly. Wetlands were not viewed as life-giving. Instead, they were associated burdens. Their impressions weigh upon us today. Kate Sanders pointed out that we get “bogged down” at work, we work the weekend because we are “swamped”. Draining the wetlands was seen as real progress. Agriculture and forestry became a boon for Indiana. That is, until it wasn’t.
 
Channelizing rivers or ditches, draining wetlands, increased agriculture and related fertilizers into watersheds have all lead to threat to our water. The Indiana Aquatic System consists of lakes and ponds, rivers and streams, and wetlands in the form of marsh, swamp, and bog. All are polluted and diminished. The class focused on identifying the various watersheds of Indiana. They include Lake Michigan, the Maumee River, the Ohio River, the Wabash River, and the Illinois River. The watersheds are compromised because of both agricultural pollutants related to farming and urban pollutants. Beyond that, the loss of wetlands and the channelization of rivers and streams (ditches) have reduced biodiversity and the ability to purify water. We are not however without solutions. This includes wider buffer strips along ditches and two stage ditches. It includes increased water treatment plat holding capacities, (the projects currently underway in Fort Wayne), rain gardens, and deceasing use of lawn fertilizers.
 
Not surprisingly we learned what a wetland is. The Army Corps of Engineers uses three criteria; hydric soil, hydrophytic plants, and wetland hydrology. We were able to see examples of all of this on our field experience at Fox Island Park. We were able to identify wetland plants in an almost Dr. Seuss manner. We learned “sedges has edges, rushes are round, and grasses are hallow, all the way down.”
 
I spend a great deal of time at Eagle Marsh, part of The Little River Wetland Projects. So I am familiar with the functions and values of wetlands. They clean the water and improve water quality. They reduce sediments. They reduce flooding. They provide homes and food for plants and animals.
 
We also learned that “Wetlands” is a general term and that in fact there are numerous types of wetlands. These include floodplain forests, wet forests, bogs, fens, Shrub-Carrs, Shallow Open Marsh, and Sedge Meadows. Finally, the reoccurring theme, we learned more about the threat of invasive species to the ecosystems. One of the biggest values of wetlands is the biodiversity it provides. Invasive species reduce that diversity and in some cases reduce the environment to monocultures.
 
During our field experience we saw various wetland ecosystems at Fox Island County Park. Bowman Lake was formed as a Borrowed lake, the land borrowed for highway construction. The Frog Pond was formed as a test pond, the sand was tested for road construction. The sand was not usable, it was wind pulverized glacier sand that was too thin to be useful. We saw sycamore, sedges, rush, grasses. We saw Eagle Marsh across the waterway. We saw a field of Pawpaw’s trees in blossom. We saw tadpoles, a salamander larvae with gills, a bull frog, and we saw lots of smiling future Master Naturalists. This was a great class and it will help me in my work at Eagle Marsh.