Bayous, bogs, fens, mangroves, marshes, moors, swamps & other wetlands

What a great looking bunch of folks! Everyone looks like they're having a great time -- and who wouldn't there?

This is gonna be very fun having (at least) three biology-oriented folks in this thread -- and I know there's at least one more on the forum -- trying to remember all.

I'm super late for dinner (it's almost 9) after a busy middle day, then a 2.5 mi walk to do errands. When I have to go on that side of town, I usually walk through the woods (cuts off a LOT of road) but that means I walk through the swamp in the ravine. First time I've done it this year since (significant) snow melt (there's still a lot down there) and had to walk in the water (or on mossy logs and knolls). Holy crap, Swampman; there was a lot of water: 8 - 10" of water on top of several inches of boot-capturing muck.

Coming back with a full 35 L pack (hardware and grocery), I was reminded yet again one of the challenges of swamp walking: getting stuck. Took some doing to get my foot out at one point.

 

Forgot to mention that in the 1970's, I was a ranger naturalist at two state parks in southern RI, one of which was at Ninigrit Beach -- including both dunes and a salt pond (marsh) behind them. I had the pleasure of giving "nature talks and walks" (and campfire lectures) there (and a nearby forested park) for three summers (76 - 78), hired by the Audubon Society of RI.

Here's a pic of me in a local newspaper article doing a "dune walk".
This was back in the day when I had hair on the top of my head.

 

Slightly off topic, but here are 3 images of potable water procurement in a swampland environment. #1 is filter in a Katydyn combi, freshly cleaned. #2 is the same filter that pumped 2.25 quarts before needing to be cleaned again. #3 is the preferred method for handling the water, get a bucket, let it settle/set for 2-4 hours, the pump off 4-5 qts with the required cleaning of filter media. It's a slow and somewhat tedious process, but a necessary one, "beaver fever" is a definite not on my to do list 3 days from the nearest road head.

 

^ love that filter setup. I have a similar set up for overlanding.

save yourself some filter cleaning, put a pair of cotton socks over the filter.......traps the silt and sediment and keeps it out of the filter pores.

 

Not OT in the least, my friend. Spot on. This thread is about every thing wetland: ecology, biology, evolution (yes, wetlands evolve: just watch one for a few thousand years ), living in them, surviving in (or through) them, and enjoying them ... because there is MUCH to enjoy in wetlands.

So, more! As long as it's wetlands related, it's game.

And wetlands aren't just found in tropical and sub-tropical forested lands. I've spent time in wetlands in the middle of deserts. Oases are a version since they're often more than merely a spring.

The most amazing and extensive desert wetlands I've seen are in the Warner Valley, E Oregon, where I traveled and camped pretty extensively in ~ 2007 - 08. Hart Mountain (Pronghorn) Antelope Refuge is there also. I felt at home near there since I did my doctoral dissertation on a (closed to the public) antelope refuge in central NM (search Sevilleta; 225,000 acres with the Rio Grande running through it. Talk about wetlands!)

I did a lot of exploration in Warner Valley OR, though I spent more time in the deserts and canyons than in the wetlands, because I'm more desert rat (PhD studies were in evolutionary ecology of deserts, so in wetlands, I'm a Gila monster out of the sand.

This is not my image (I'll dig up some of mine later -- they're on an archive drive), but it represents the area well.



That country is spectacular, truly the American outback (mostly Great Basin Desert) that extends from S UT and E NV into the high planes of E BC and Alberta. It is truly spectacular, rugged, and much of it wild. There's a human presence there for sure -- cattle, logging, mining foremost among them. But it's still wild, and I challenge anyone to try to live in it long term, especially without all the modern conveniences.

And the wetlands play a VITAL role in their ecology, and deserve to be ... carefully "managed". <ahem; remember: no politics allowed on this forum, thankfully.>
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I haven't savored your post yet, @anrkst6973 -- neither pics nor prose -- because it's 0800, and I've just logged on to check mail (so I saw your words that I quote above, and wanted to clarify).

So, I'll be back after work tonight. This thread's gonna need some proper wetlands music for a Saturday night.

Hmmm ...

 

Good thought but can't on this type, filter fits internally into a plastic body. We've tried panty hose or cloth over the pickup tube end (fail, clogged in minutes) and pouring the water thru a pre-screen lined with paper coffee filters ( fail, did not change the amount of water produced before water pump gets clogged, tedious, time consuming, and requires two people.) This wordiness is just a heads up to anyone visiting a swamp environment anywhere along the southern US, a filtering bottle or dromedary bag is a waste of time, it's not going to survive or be able to provide you sufficient hydration in this hot humid biosphere. Get a cleanable ceramic element type ( Katydyn, MSR, ect) and be ready to spend time and effort getting your required gallon per day.

 

^Fine advice.^

Before I replaced it with a much lighter Pur filter (still have it), I carried a Katydyn ceramic filter for many years. All over the western states. Every few uses, I brushed the filter with the provided brush in unfiltered water. It worked flawlessly for countless liters of water.

But I finally realized that in the relatively clean western waters, the heavy ceramic filter was overkill. So I replaced it with a Pur about the same size and capacity, but about 1/3 the weight.

However -- and this is a big however -- what we have here in Maine swamp-wise is similar to what y'all have down there in the south: muck. This is 100% glacial topography. 20,000 years ago, the spot I live on was under a couple of miles of ice. When it melted, it drops a ton (well, metric tons) of rock, gravel, sand and silt. The silt makes up the muck on the bottom of the swamp. That stuff that eats boots.

And it's always in the water column. The wind stirs it up. Without a LOT of caution, my Pur filter would clog up very quickly. Here, out back from base camp, for swamp water, I'd need a ceramic. But out there, I don't need to extract water -- I can carry what I need from base camp (what I call my apt).

And up at my main Maine camp, where I'll spend at least a month (off and on) next summer, I have a clear, deep lake and a stream flowing out of it into a deep gorge in the granite. Down in the gorge -- reportedly -- it gets over 100' vertical. (I'll report back with pics by August.)

But I'm going to Scotland late year, so I'll just wait to see what I need there. Lots of moors, fens, and such over there.

 

I agree. Here's the bucket I use.

It's also useful to pull water out of a fast flowing clear stream and filter it.
No sense fighting the bobbing pre-filter float in fast water.

 

The image below is an example, just as a place holder.

Not exactly a "wetland", but it's about 1/2 mi below my main camp. Downstream, that water becomes a wetland, then a lake (Nahmakanta, just SW of Katahdin), then east to the Penobscot (class 4 anyone?), down to Penobscot Bay south of Bangor -- largest bay on the US east coast north of Chesapeake -- then to Bay of Fundy (largest tides on Earth) and the North Atlantic.

Well, OK, maybe there a "wetland" in there, somewhere.
I mean, I guess the ocean is the ultimate "wetland", right?

 

Those things look super handy. I've got one on one of my shopping lists on Amazon, eventually wanting to order it. Has yours held up well? There have been so many times I've hiked or paddled to a camp site and needed a bucket but didn't really see a logical way to pack one up.

 

@Kaw-liga, I can't comment on the longevity of this bucket yet -- I've literally only used it for one week last October (it arrived days before) -- but my sense is, it'll outlast me. It's very well built from exceedingly rugged material -- or so it feels.

My only gripe is the lid. It just doesn't fit right. I can sort of use it by inverting it and stuffing inside the bucket -- more like a plug than a lid -- but when right-side-up, it won't fit over the walls of the bucket. I considered returning it, but it's really not a deal breaker for me. I just haul water with it 3/4 full so it doesn't slosh (and that still gives me 1.5 days worth), and use the lid in camp to keep leaves and bugs out of it.

 

Here's another use for the bucket, that ever present chore of long range kayaker's and lowly pfc's who fail at making their DI's happy,,,,dishwasher. This particular bucket has been in service for 5, maybe 6 years.

 

Nice helmet!

 

@backwater-otter you'll like this thread and probably have some info to share!

 

Shadow Lake BC (South of Pemberton BC). Small lake with multiple marshlands, diverse waterfowl, beaver, and amphibian populations. And skeeters.

 

Skeeters seem to be an important -- maybe even defining -- characteristic of wetlands.

We hit the low 60's F today for the first time this spring (well, we bumped it during an anomaly in March, but only for an hour or two). After the wind died, the skeeters appeared out of no-where.

= Wetland.

Usually the blackflies suck blood here before mosquitoes.

This year, somethin's different ...

 

Oooh this is a great thread! Subbed! I'll have to grab some of my pics.

 

Welcome, @backwater-otter. Any friend of @anrkst6973 is a friend of mine.

Speaking of wetlands, these images aren't in or of one,
but are just 150 m north of the swamp in the ravine.

And the mosquitoes were there this afternoon to prove it. Holy crap, Maine mosquitoes are like A-10 Warthogs.

Blackflies (aka midges from hell ) are next.

So what are these? My catapult (slingshot) target range and tarp
at Two, one of my favorite spots in the woods out back.

Full stories to come about both, but in other threads ...

 

You could almost practice aerial gunnery on these eh Stone? Almost a 1/2 inch of wingspan and a bill like a #8 needle.

 

Here's one from my IG account. She tried to make a meal out of me while I was folding laundry one evening. We have a nice little swamp bottom about a quarter mile behind our house. It's really something of beauty when we start getting good rain and warm weather. These guys come as part of the package, I suppose. But I guess the martins and the frogs have to eat, too.