Yes, We Bought a 'Swamp'
It’s one of the most valuable parts of our Foothills property.
It’s a quiet place right now, at least to my human perceptions, in the still of mid-January, at 1°F out. The pond has largely frozen, but at the inlet, fresh water flows in via the creek, under a layer of ice on the coldest days, and out, at, of course, the outlet, flowing southward. This fresh water exchange allows the minnows, and a myriad of underwater life forms remaining in the pond to have oxygen in the deeps (2-7ft down) where they reside, below the ice line.
This little pond is a part of a wetland system that runs down a shallow valley. In winter, the expansive heave of flooding up and over the established ice and freezing again covers our wooden bridges and shows the shiny layer of frozen water flow now lifted above the foliage. Fox, elk, deer, and coyote walk on water via the ice across the pond now, their pathways marked in the snow. The little critters have made their subnivean tunnel systems connecting areas and staying hidden.
Come April, there will be enough open water for Henry and Ethel Mallard to return to their summer home. A two-duck size hole in the ice that will open more each day. Freeze over again, thaw again, waiting for the warm weather and the promise of duckings.
Our pond is a part of a larger wetland which starts about a quarter mile northwest of our place. Fed by a natural underground spring, this wetland is a part of the mapped wetlands noted by the US Fish and Wildlife Wetlands Inventory. Each inventoried wetland is monitored for changes over time. The inventoried wetlands all over the US are now protected for conservation by the Emergency Wetlands Resources Act of 1986. From the map, this wetland flows south down to meet the North Fork of the South Platte River, to meet the South Platte, to meet the Platte River, to the Missouri River, to the Mississippi River, and out to the Gulf of Mexico. In the realm of wetlands, ours is very small, but small does not mean insignificant. This system of moving water through dense foliage and stone before it arrives at larger bodies of water is a protective filtration process and wildlife refuge. Use the inventory map tool to see a wetland near you.
I put the word ‘swamp’ in my title in quotes, since that is technically not the right term for our wetland. Swamp, marsh, bog, fen, there are many different types of wetlands, and they play different roles in the land or coastline where they are located. Wet meadow to marsh is the closest definition for our location. Here are the different types of wetlands:
“Wetlands are among the most biologically productive ecosystems in the world. Their microbial activity enriches the water and soil with nutrients. Plant growth in wetlands provides a “sink” for many chemicals, including atmospheric carbon” - EPA.gov
The pond and the surrounding wetland is a wondrous spot to watch a wildlife show of songbirds, hawks and eagles, herons, ducks, snakes, rodents, coyotes, fox, deer, elk, and moose, just to name a few. Dragonflies shoot by on impossible-to-follow hunting paths. Water skimmers race across the pond and ducklings practice capturing bugs. In the realm of wildlife, especially in the summer, it buzzes with activity like a human city.
Wetlands in different parts of the country and around the world play different roles. From coastal estuaries, to the swamps of the American south filled with trees, moss, alligators, and snakes that fill human imaginations with eerie dread-filled stories. But stories aside, a wetland’s first function is to hold and filter water. If you’ve been to Lake Tahoe and noticed the incredible clear water of that huge lake, you would come to learn that it has vast inlet wetlands that serve the purpose of filtering all the water that comes from snowmelt in the basin that it sits in. The layers of organic matter held in the sediment hold astonishing amounts of carbon. Wetlands are flood control, fire break, erosion reduction, groundwater recharge and waste storage.
The value of a wetland, amazingly, has only begun to be appreciated in the past 100 years or so. The value wasn’t seen originally by men who would come to survey land for prospects of gleaning resources or building. Two millennia ago, the Romans figured out how to drain wetlands so they could move armies through, and make roads, villages, agriculture, or military strongholds. Swamps have historically been seen as useless land and the word itself has become derogatory to mean something filthy, dangerous, useless, and disregarded.
One common old misconception of wetlands is that it breeds mosquitoes and other dangerous insects. The truth is quite the opposite. Wetlands are not the stagnant water which mosquitoes need to breed, few eggs are laid there. Wetlands are also home to dozens of species that eat the mosquitoes. So, wetland areas are actually lower in mosquitos.
Many wetlands around the country have been drained for development. In the lower 48 states, wetlands make up only 5.5% of land, and 95% of wetlands are freshwater, a precious resource. In Colorado alone, the original estimation of wetland area was over 2 million acres, only 2% of Colorado’s landscape. As of today, that amount is down to about 1 million acres, a 50% loss in the last 175 years. 95% of riparian (water adjacent) areas in the West have been degraded by human activity. Wetlands are disappearing three times faster than forests. Like cutting off the branch we are sitting on, we degrade wetlands to our own demise.
“We are prone to speak of the resources of this country as inexhaustible; this is not so. We have fallen heirs to the most glorious heritage a people ever received, and each one must do his part if we wish to show that the nation is worthy of its good fortune”
— President Theodore Roosevelt
For us, living here, our wetland is a place to watch sunsets that reflect in the pond, listen to the Wilson’s Snipe whistle-diving overhead, marvel at the movement of a heron hunting minnows for breakfast, and silently observe the moose, from a good distance, as he makes a meal of the algae, his face pouring water off as he lifts another massive mouthful out. We are grateful for this water source in so many ways, and I haven’t even mentioned beavers yet. That will be another post. The creek runs through here, and we have worked hard to make sure it’s as clean and wild as it was always meant to be.
Sources:
- Many thanks to S. Newton, expert on so many things, for fact checking me!
- Fen, Bog & Swamp: A Short History of Peatland Destruction and its Role in the Climate Crisis, Annie Proulx, Scribner, New York 2022
- https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2021-01/documents/types_of_wetlands.pdf
- https://www.epa.gov/report-environment/wetlands
- https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2021-01/documents/wetlands_protection_partnering_with_land_trusts.pdf
- http://www.wetlands-initiative.org/what-is-a-wetland
- https://www.in.gov/dnr/fish-and-wildlife/files/hlywet.pdf
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wetland
- https://cnhp.colostate.edu/cwic/
- https://cnhp.colostate.edu/cwic/about-cwic/importance/
- https://cpw.state.co.us/wetlands
- https://unfccc.int/news/wetlands-disappearing-three-times-faster-than-forests
📷 All photos are credit: The Abert Essays unless otherwise noted.
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I have always thought owning a wetland would be cool. Just to do nothing with it.
What a beautiful place to have in your backyard. If I had a pond like that, I would probably spent most my days near the water’s edge and observe all the creatures that visit it. Thank you for sharing your slice of paradise!