Preserving our Future: World Wetlands Day 2015
A million HELLOS to the blogging community!
And happy early World Wetlands Day! It’s hard not to be passionate about the celebration of such an event, since all of what you see here — the unique landscapes and its wonderful critters — are dependent on wetland ecosystems. Officially February 2, World Wetlands Day is an international celebration of the planet’s marshes, swamps, and bogs. It marks the anniversary of the signing of the Convention on Wetlands, called the Ramsar Convention, on February 2, 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar. World Wetlands Day was first celebrated in 1997, and since then government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and citizens all over the world have aimed to raise public awareness of the critical value and intrinsic benefits of wetland ecosystems.
Despite the growing awareness of this unique ecosystem, there are sobering threats facing the survival of our wetlands:
- A 2011 federal study estimated the U.S. lost 62,300 acres of wetlands between 2004-2009 — a loss rate 140% higher than from 1998-2004
- Wetland habitat has now been cut within the contiguous U.S. to 110 million acres…. And those surviving wetlands face dangers like hypoxia due to water pollution and invasive species. Pythons and melaleuca in the Everglades (among a host of other destructive non-native species), and nutria in New Orleans continue to ravage the structure of this ecosystem
- Wetlands are extremely sensitive, and are counted as one of the most vulnerable ecosystems subject to climate change
- Wetlands residents have suffered terribly due to increased habitat loss
Preserving the future of the wetlands of our world: Mother and baby Great Blue Heron in the Florida wetlands
From the Ramsar website:
THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY DEPENDS ON WETLANDS
They purify and replenish our water, and provide the fish and rice that feed billions. Wetlands act as a natural sponge against flooding and drought, and protect our coastlines. They burst with biodiversity, and are a vital means of storing carbon. Unfortunately, these benefits are not widely known. Often viewed as wasteland, 64% of our wetlands have disappeared since 1900.
Help us turn the tide on the loss and degradation of our wetlands. Join us for World Wetlands Day 2015 – and beyond! Here’s how you can get involved: #WorldWetlandsDay #WetlandsForOurFuture
There’s much that can be done to restore and protect this vital habitat — check out your local resources, visit your neighboring natural areas, and above else, LOVE YOUR WETLANDS and their amazing inhabitants!
For more information and wonderful educational and marketing materials, visit World Wetlands Day 2015, and on Facebook: RamsarConventionOnWetlands
The lush Florida wetlands — a treasure to conserve
FeyGirl
Serenity Spell 
Thank you so much for posting this…. I didn’t write one and I have wetland woods on my property… Michelle
Absolutely!! I know you have a neverending supply of photos and inspiration — I didn’t realize you were lucky enough to have the wetlands so nearby! 🙂
The woods in my photos are wetland woods..wet in spring and then mostly dry by the end of the summer. It is hard to walk there and even harder to chase an injured gosling through as we did this summer….but I should look and learn more about it..
Christina, so glad to hear from you again and wishing I were in the Florida’s wetlands again. Thanks for such informative post!
Thanks so much Maria! It’s nice to be back. I’ve been enjoying your blog in my own absence, from mine. 🙂 And here’s to protecting these amazing ecosystems, the world over….
Always good to read your posts. Remember to buy the federal duck stamps because 98 cents of every dollar goes to purchase wetlands.
Thanks so much! I’ve been trying to keep up with your posts, and others, in the absence from my own blog. 🙂 And YES — thanks so much for the reminder! I wanted to write about that….
One of the most magical places on earth is the center of a cypress swamp. I am lucky enough to own one in the heartland of Florida. As I see it, the most pressing threat to the wetlands and all living beings, for that matter, is the relentless chemical spraying of the atmosphere to intentionally modify and manufacture weather-a process known as geoengineering. This goes on every day here in Florida, with deep blue skies now only a memory and replaced with milky white streaks and haze. Lots of education can be found at http://www.geoengineeringwatch.org. The aircraft are visible at about 10,000 feet altitude just about every day over my property, marking up the sky with plumes of toxic spray that blocks the sun and disrupts the hydrological cycle. My cypress trees are showing signs of strain under the stress of sucking up the heavy metals that are included in the spray. Until we dismantle the geoengineering steamroller, wetlands protection is only a band-aid to the bleeding. Look up and watch what happens in the sky.
Ah, how amazingly lucky you are to have a cypress swamp on your property! Personally, those are my ABSOLUTE favorite ecosystems… Unbelievably beautiful.
I’ve known about the spraying / phenomena, but I had no idea as to its effects on the flora (and fauna, I’m sure) — of course it makes absolute sense. Thanks so much for mentioning it!
Reblogged this on Spirit In Action and commented:
Thank you for sharing this! I did not know about world wetlands day. How appropriate that the day to celebrate wetlands which are the world’s nurseries falls on Imbolc the holiday to celebrate the spark of life yet hidden, that will expand and be fully born into the world in Spring.
You’re SO right…. and I know I’ve said this before, but I can’t believe I missed the connection to Imbolc! THANK you!! 🙂
Thank you for writing this! It made me remember my time as wetland-activist and that enourmous feeling of happiness when the wetland close to our village got a big “ramsar” sign. We started as a small school project and ended up protecting animals from the red list of extinction. This was such a nice time in my life, thanks for making me think of it.
How incredibly AMAZING! A huge thank-you and kudos for your wonderful work… It’s stupefying to think that such action could save animals from outright extinction.
You’re welcome haha it was a great time and I’m proud that I had the chance to attend a school which would encourage students to do so. I still have the newspaper articles in hanging in a frame at my parents’ place. If you ever have the chance to be part of something like this -do it! It gives back much more than you can ever invest 🙂
I imagine… And I sorely wish more schools around the world incorporated such studies in their agendas! Totally two-fold: More learning with these types of hands-on activities than anything, honestly.
And in addition to that it’s even fun!
Hurray you’re back!!!!!!!
It was an empty place without you here~
Awwww, THANK you — a trillion THANK YOUs! I’m glad I’m finally back, at least on WP. 🙂
Your place will always be here in our minds and hearts.
It’s good to see you back, I really enjoy your posts!
You’re so kind — thanks very much!! It’s nice to be back to my own blog — I’ve been trying to visit everyone else’s in my absence. 🙂
Lovely post!!!
Thanks so very much! It’s easy to appreciate the beauty around here… 🙂
A hello back from. A great reminder post and a wonderful photo to celebrate what we still have.
A big YES to that comment… And thanks so much! Hopefully I can continue with a few more posts. 🙂
Preserving wetlands is so important, and all nature. Especially now when the world is getting so overcrowded with humans. Very nice photos and good luck!
You’re absolutely right… It’s imperative that we preserve what we haven’t already destroyed, for not just the sake of the flora and fauna, but for ourselves.
Thanks so much!
thanks for all that YOU do to increase others awareness of the beauty and importance of nature’s role in our lives.
gotta run! the tour group is probably wondering, ‘where’s lisa?’
z
How wonderful!! Great minds think alike. 🙂 For some reason I fell off your subscription list — that’s happened to me a few times. I’m re-following!
Ah, you’re also in an area filled with these beautiful ecosystems. I gotta visit, and be part of your tour!
It was dismaying when we lived in Florida how quickly development was taking over the wild spaces.
I want to think it’s gotten a bit better — more attention to the issues, at least — but you’re absolutely right. The lack of policies to protect these incredibly unique ecosystems, Everglades included, is completely miserable. Developers have FAR too much power in the state, sadly.
So great to see you posting again!! Hope you have plenty of time in 2015 to get out into the natural areas you love so much!! We need the spiritual renewal for sure!!
HELLO there!! Thank you so much…. I have to send you an email (it actually got caught in drafts, believe it or not). The quest for spiritual renewal via the natural world, as you so perfectly put it, is ramping into high gear! HUGE hugs and kisses your way. 🙂
Maybe we humans dart about like anhingas never quite finishing our thoughts. I have things half written stuck here and there myself!! Life getting in the way is what makes our chances out all the more special.
SO true… Very well put. I like the image of a somewhat manic anhinga! Once we force ourselves out there though, life is that much better for it. 🙂
Great post, made me run out and check how my little spring was doing as it gurgled away down in the canyon. It seemed quite happy. I told it you said hi. 🙂 –Curt
Hahahah!! THANK you so much — I send huge hugs and kisses to your own beautiful world. 🙂
I came by before Wetlands Day and passed your post on to a few people. There were several groups in Texas and Louisiana that marked the day in one way or another, and I think it’s clear that more and more people are becoming aware of the importance of the wetlands.
Beyond that, it’s pure pleasure to see you and your beautiful post here again. Thanks for the reminder to us all about such an important day. With all that clamors for attention, it can be easy to forget.
How wonderful! It’s that kind of attention and love to the natural spaces that helps so incredibly much.
And, THANK you! I’ve been trying to keep up with everyone’s gorgeous and brilliant blogging, in the absence from my own little blog. This keeps me happy, so I must continue. 🙂
Thanks for calling attention to this vitally important issue. We are living in a world that too often tramples on sensitive ecosystems for temporary gain. Making people aware of all that is at stake is the first step toward ending that.
What a beautiful way of putting it — and so incredibly true, on all levels. Thanks so very much for such sensitive words for our beautiful ecosystems!
I missed World Wetland Day, but thanks for this information. As you know, much of the western half of Washington State is wetland. Unfortunately, we have lost precious wetland in Washington due to overgrowth, corporations and farming.