Wetlands

Forested wetlands are the subject of extensive USDA research.

Swamps, marshes, and bogs are types of wetlands.

Wetlands can have freshwater, salt water, or a mixture of both.

Shorebirds and waders, such as sandpipers, plovers, avocets, herons and egrets, forage along wetlands and beaches of the sanctuary.

The shoreline and coastal wetlands provide critical feeding and resting habitat for shorebirds and waders.

During periods of excessive rain, wetlands absorb and slow floodwaters, which helps to alleviate property damage and may even save lives.

Wetlands also absorb excess nutrients, sediments, and other pollutants before they reach rivers, lakes, and other waterbodies.

Wetlands are also great spots for fishing, canoeing, hiking and bird-watching.

Salt marshes are coastal wetlands that are flooded and drained by salt water brought in by the tides.

Dozens of water buffalo in Iraq's southeastern wetlands have died because of low water levels in the marshes, threatening the livelihoods of a community of marsh dwellers that has made the area its home for millennia.