# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Wetlands are exactly as they sound: lands covered by shallow water. How can you tell if an area is a wetland and why do these ecosystems matter? Find out the answers to these questions and more with fun wetlands facts for kids, printable activities and multimedia resources.

Elements of Wetlands

Every wetland is unique from others because of its location and foundation. There are four main types of wetland ecosystems for kids to learn about: marshes, swamps, bogs and fens. To learn more about what a wetland looks like and how it works, check out this fun music video.

Related Articles

Marsh

Marshes are not always full of water and contain fresh water, salt water, or a combination of both. A tidal marsh forms near a body of water like a river, bay or stream and its water level rises or lowers with the tide. An inland marsh forms near a lake or river when the water table is high.

Common marsh plants include:

Papyrus

Water lilies

Sawgrass

Cypress

Water chestnut

Critters you find in a marsh include:

Duck

Fish like Shad and Herring

Shrimp

Crab

Heron

Butterfly

Frog

Swamp

Swamps form in floodplains or other areas with bad drainage and always have wet soil or standing water. The main difference between a marsh and a swamp is the type of plants growing in them. Swamps have trees while marshes don't.

Common swamp plants are:

Cattails

Reeds

Cypress tree

Gum tree

Mangroves

Animals you might see in a swamp are:

Alligator

Crane

Deer

Raccoon

Snake

Woodpecker

Bog

Bogs only contain fresh water because they are fed by rain and exist in northern climates inside lake basins with poor drainage. The ground in a bog feels like a squishy sponge and is covered by peat, which is decaying plant matter.

Plants you might find in a bog include:

Fungi

Heather

Sphagnum moss

Sundew

Pitcher plants

Common bog critters are:

Hairy canary fly

Salamander

Crane

Raccoon

Fen

Fens also contain only fresh water because they are fed by groundwater. These types of wetlands are the rarest and contain more plant and animal species than any other wetlands.

Common fen plants include:

Tamarack trees

Poison sumac

Wildflowers

Creatures you might find living in a fen are:

Butterflies

Deer

Turkey

Turtles

Wetlands Around the World

Wetlands are diverse, beautiful and occur in areas around the world. Check out these famous wetlands:

The Florida Everglades sit on a bed of limestone and help make clean water for different parts of the state.

One of the largest wetlands in the world is the Pantanal spanning 150,000 square kilometers in Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay in South America.

Australia is home to the Kakadu Wetlands which houses wild horses, buffalo and alligators together.

Environmental Importance

Wetland ecosystems benefit people, plants and animals in many ways. They are incredibly productive, play home to diverse species and protect water. Some of their greatest services include:

Providing a variety of food sources to support the food chain

Naturally improving water quality

Promoting diversity of life

Protecting against flood damage

Wetlands cover around six percent of the Earth, but in the last few decades, the United States alone has lost half its wetlands. About 30 percent of the threatened or endangered species living in the United States live exclusively in wetland habitats. Protecting these areas not only helps these animals but provides important resources for people too.

Wetland Activities

Test your knowledge and learn more about wetlands with fun activities about wetland habitats, ecosystems, plants and animals.

Wetland Search and Find

There are lots of things that harm or threaten to harm wetlands and the animals who live there. Can you spot these harmful items hidden in this landscape? Click on the image to download and print the wetland search and find. Color the whole page and circle the harmful items as you find them. If you have any trouble, this guide has tips and tricks to help with troubleshooting.

Wetland Search and Find

Wetland Matching

There are many animals and creatures living in wetlands and they're all part of a food chain. Use this worksheet to test your knowledge on what different animals eat in this habitat. Click on the image to download the worksheet then click on the print icon. Draw a line from the animal on the left to the food it eats on the right.

Wetlands Matching Activity

Online Activities

Fun computer games help you learn more about wetland facts for kids and serve as a test of what you already know. Check out these science websites for interactive wetland activities.

For a more relaxing activity try the Wetlands Coloring Book. You choose an animal then click on the colored pencils to color in your wetland creature.

Vanishing Wetlands: A Magic Act? is a web quest designed to follow a fifth-grade curriculum that directs kids to gather facts and create a poster about how people can help protect wetlands.

Books About Wetlands

There are so many kinds of wetlands and each one is unique. Reading books or watching movies about wetland habitats and animals helps keep the fun and learning going.

Younger readers take a journey through everything above and below the water in Here is the Wetland, an illustrated picture book by Madeleine Dunphy.

Wetlands Inside Out by James Bow is great for older kids because it includes maps, activities and focus boxes to present factual information about these ecosystems.

Cathryn Sill's book About Habitats: Wetlands shows young readers what a wetland is, who lives there and why they are important.

Teaching About Wetlands

Kids can use these resources to learn while adults can use them to create extensive units for children about the wetlands. Of course, nothing helps children learn better than actually experiencing the wetlands. If you have wetlands nearby, take students to see actual wetlands to help reinforce the learning.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Wetlands are exactly as they sound: lands covered by shallow water. How can you tell if an area is a wetland and why do these ecosystems matter? Find out ...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Can You Build On WETLANDS? 5 Things You Must Know

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Don't forget to explore Our Unbeatable $1 Down Land Listings + Vacation Giveaway! https://land.gokcap.com Even if you're new to the world of vacant land, you may have already heard that wetlands are a reason to be cautious. Due to the protections placed on them, building on wetlands can be difficult.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
What is a wetland?

A wetland is land that is covered with water (like the image above). A wetland can also be land that is waterlogged - this means that the soil is saturated or full of water. The water may or may not pool on top of the soil.

Did you know? Not all wetlands are wet all year round. Some wetlands dry out for parts of the year.

There are many words used to describe different types of wetlands. For example: swamp, marsh, fen, billabong, mangrove, floodplain and peatland. Can you think of any other types of wetlands?

Where are wetlands found?

Wetlands are found on all continents except Antarctica. They are found inland. They are also found in coastal areas, where freshwater mixes with seawater.

Here are some examples of wetlands around the world:

All images: Rhett A. Butler

What kinds of organisms live in a wetland?

Wetlands are home to plants, animals, fungi and algae.

Some plants that live in wetlands are called hydrophytes. Hydrophytes - like the lotus plant - are adapted to living in water. Another famous wetland plant is the carnivorous Venus flytrap.

Wetlands are important homes for many animals. Birds, fish and mollusks live in wetlands. Mammals - like beavers and otters - also live in wetlands.

Why are wetlands wonderful?

Here are some of the reasons why wetlands are important. They:

1. Store carbon

2. Clean and filter water

3. Provide food to many animals, including us

4. Help protect land from erosion and floods

5. Make us feel happy

How can we protect and restore our wetlands?

Our wonderful wetlands need help to thrive. Here are a few actions you can take:

1. Learn more about wetlands. (Check out more resources in the links below.)

2. Visit wetlands to appreciate their beauty, but tread lightly. Stay on paths and boardwalks where possible. Be mindful not to step on small or delicate plants.

3. Don't litter near wetlands.

4. Garden organically - avoid using pesticides and insecticides in home gardens.

5. Get involved! Participate in a wetland cleanup. Or help a wetland restoration project in your local area.

Related activity (Grades 3-5)

Wetland activity: imagine life as an animal in the Okavango Delta

Resources for educators and caregivers

February 2 is World Wetlands Day.

Additional resources:

World Wetlands Day website: worldwetlandsday.org

EPA:

NOAA: What is a wetland?

gov.au: About wetlands

WWF: What is a wetland? And 8 other wetland facts

Mongabay India: Wetlands explainer

*Mongabay Kids is not responsible for content published on external sites

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What are wetlands and how can we protect them?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A wetland is land that is covered with water (like the image above). A wetland can also be land that is waterlogged - this means that the soil is saturated or full of water. The water may or may not pool on top of the soil. Did you know?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Wetland Watchers: Kids Care for Their Environment

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Through this nationally recognized service-learning project in Louisiana, students have become stewards of the area's fragile wetlands.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
What would it look like if land was used for the common good? At Shared Assets, we think a future of common good land use is not only desirable, but achievable. www.sharedassets.org.uk Thanks to Mair Perkins for the animation - https://mairperkins.co.uk/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn about the 7 main types of land use with this video. The 7 main types of land use that are presented in this video are: Residential Commercial Industrial Institutional Agricultural Transportation Parks and green space Enjoy! Follow my Instagram for worksheets on select videos. @Education_animated Please like and subscribe!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Caution: Building in a Wetland Can Be Hazardous to Your House

Developers are nibbling away at the nation's small wetlands, creating big problems in the process for many homeowners

"Build your house in a wetland, and you've got a hobby for the rest of your life," warns Ed Perry. "You will be fighting that water forever."

A student of flooded basements and cracked foundations, Perry knows what he's talking about. While investigating illegally filled wetlands in Pennsylvania for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the biologist has visited plenty of houses built where water naturally flows and has commiserated with sorrowful owners of sodden split-levels. The lesson, says Perry, is that home builders who tamper with even small wetlands can have big problems.

The trouble Perry uncovers should never take place. Wetlands are superb at purifying polluted water, replenishing aquifers and harboring wildlife. But they are almost always terrible places to build houses.

Only about 5 percent of the land area in the continental United States is composed of wetlands. But these transitional zones-neither completely dry nor entirely liquid-are enormously valuable, especially when it comes to controlling floods. Wetlands act like natural sponges on the landscape, absorbing and then gradually releasing storm waters and lessening flood damage.

In the Midwest, where thousands of homes were struck by devastating floods in the early 1990s, more than 17 million acres of wetlands have been built on or plowed under in the Mississippi and Missouri river basins; an FWS study found that those destroyed wetlands could have contained enough river water to flood 1,000 football fields to a depth of more than four miles. Instead, much of that water poured over levees and into people's homes.

When wetlands are filled, the water that made them wet has to go somewhere. If it isn't seeping back into the basement of the house built on the former wetland, the water likely is leaking into formerly dry homes of downstream property owners.

That's exactly what happened not long ago in the Pocono Mountains in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, after a developer drained a half-acre forested wetland and then dug a channel down the middle of the property. Thanks to that ditch, "the sponge wasn't acting like a sponge anymore," says Craig Todd, manager of the Monroe County Conservation District. Storm water sluicing through the drained wetland "ended up creating the largest eroded gulley in our county," he says. It clogged municipal culverts and flooded out two houses downstream.

Ed Perry has prepared numerous reports studded with photos of seasonal wetlands-some of them "sites you need hip boots to get into," he says-where unscrupulous builders have tried to peddle housing lots during dry months. The situation is compounded by a national policy that gives blanket approval to developers to build homes and other structures in many small wetlands.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' nationwide permit program was set up in 1977 to provide developers and other potential wetland fillers with quick responses for modest projects. The idea was to spare citizens from red tape while they sought approval from the Corps (which regulates wetlands activities under the federal Clean Water Act) for projects that have only slight impact on the environment. But critics of the nationwide permits say the program destroys thousands of acres of valuable wetlands a year, usually in the form of small wetlands.

"Most of the filling that goes on throughout the country is relatively small-fills of less than a half acre," Perry says of the nickel-and-dime approach to destroying natural resources.

To Tony Turrini, a National Wildlife Federation attorney specializing in wetland regulations, the small, seemingly harmless fills allowed by the Corps' nationwide permit program represent a critical problem. "What we're talking about is piecemealing away the resource," says Turrini. "It's a piece here, a piece there, but cumulatively we're seeing extremely significant losses." Even without considering the natural benefits wetlands provide, the fact remains that building in such areas makes little sense.

One of the most controversial Corps permits-known as Nationwide Permit 26-allowed for the filling of as many as 10 acres of wetlands under certain circumstances. Environmentalists long criticized Nationwide Permit 26 as the cause of more than half of all wetlands destruction every year in this country. Under threat of a lawsuit from NWF and other groups, the Corps recently agreed to phase out the permit over the next two years.

Now another permit-Nationwide Permit 29-has come under fire from conservationists. Adopted by the Corps in 1995, the permit gives expedited approval for filling as much as one-half acre of wetlands for construction of single-family homes and such attendant features as septic systems or pools.

"With Nationwide Permit 29, the Corps has said half-acre fills are inherently insignificant," says Turrini. "But lots of studies document that playa lakes, prairie potholes and vernal pools-all wetlands that are often less than one-half acre in size-have very significant environmental values."

The Corps insists that its new permit will have minimal impact on the nation's wetlands. But officials in northeast Pennsylvania's Pocono Plateau worry that the permit could result in destruction of thousands of acres of undeveloped small wetlands. The plateau is home to roughly 30 percent of the state's wetlands.

The same unspoiled region is within a leisurely drive of one-tenth of the nation's population. Moreover, there are thousands of undeveloped homesites, many with wetlands, in subdivisions platted during a Poconos vacation-home boom in the 1970s and 1980s. An official of The Nature Conservancy assigned to the Poconos calls the empty homesites, undeveloped due to the recession of the late 1980s, "a sword of Damocles over this area."

The good news in the Poconos is that local governments have adopted regulations to steer growth away from wetlands. The bad news is that the Army Corps of Engineers' relaxed approach to wetlands development could undermine such efforts. Says FWS's Perry, "The local people have come up with all these zoning ordinances and regulations to stop people from filling in their wetlands, and the federal government now issues a general permit that allows them to do it. Those people feel like they've had the rug pulled out from underneath them."

A few states to the west, conservationists have identified more wetlands imperiled by the Corps' home-building permit, in this case on lots that were platted decades ago-and that now appear poised for development-in marshes and cedar swamps along a Lake Michigan shoreline. Scott McEwen of the Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council, a nonprofit group in Michigan, fears that Nationwide Permit 29 will expedite filling of many small waterfront lots that, taken together, provide nursery habitat for fish such as pike and walleye and that serve as staging areas for warblers and other neotropical birds migrating across the Great Lakes into Canada. "In this area [northern Michigan], where there's so much second-home development pressure, there's going to be a tremendous cumulative impact," he says.

Filling one small parcel of wetland may seem harmless, but the damage adds up when several property owners in a watershed also begin draining and building. That's why conservationists are concerned that the Army Corps' permit program is helping to nibble away the nation's precious wetlands. Their concern seems justified. At this writing, the Army Corps was preparing to release 16 more nationwide permits for review, including one that would allow residential fills of as many as three acres of wetlands.

"We're losing our wetlands base not because of large projects but because of a multitude of small fills that aren't being regulated properly," says NWF's Turrini. Considering all the good wetlands do-from protecting people from floods to providing habitat for wildlife-not saving even the smallest patch of bog or marsh, he adds, "amounts to pouring precious resources down the drain."

Writer Michael Lipske lives in Washington, D.C.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Caution: Building in a Wetland Can Be Hazardous to Your House

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Developers are nibbling away at the nation's small wetlands, creating big problems in the process for many homeowners

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Epic reaches 75 million kids in class and after school.

Built on a collection of 40,000+ popular, high-quality books from 250+ of the world's best publishers, Epic safely fuels curiosity and reading confidence for kids 12 and under.

Get Started

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
online access fun thousands children great kids ebooks books

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Wetlands Inside Out kids' book from the leading digital reading platform with a collection of 40,000+ books from 250+ of the world's best publishers. Read now on Epic.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Epic reaches 75 million kids in class and after school.

Built on a collection of 40,000+ popular, high-quality books from 250+ of the world's best publishers, Epic safely fuels curiosity and reading confidence for kids 12 and under.

Get Started

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
online access fun thousands children great kids ebooks books

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Wetland Food Chains kids' book from the leading digital reading platform with a collection of 40,000+ books from 250+ of the world's best publishers. Read now on Epic.