Wetlands — Where I Feel Most at Home

A lifelong pull toward wet places

For as long as I can remember, I have been drawn to wetlands. Swamps, marshes, bogs, mangrove forests, floodplains, tidal creeks, ponds, and estuaries have never looked like wastelands to me. They have always looked alive.

I grew up in South Florida with the beach in one direction and the Everglades in the other. We even had alligators in the canal behind our house, and we swam there all the time. Looking back, I can see that those early experiences planted a fascination that would eventually influence my education, my career, my conservation work, my photography, and much of the way I chose to spend my free time.

Where other people might first notice mud, mosquitoes, or tangled vegetation, I notice how water moves, where wildlife travels, what plants can tolerate saturated soil, and how the whole landscape changes with the seasons.

Alligator crossing sign recalling Tim's childhood beside the Everglades — Growing up on the edge of the Everglades meant that alligators and wetlands were part of everyday life.

A broad New England wetland near Byfield — A New England wetland near Byfield — open water, emergent vegetation, forest edges, and wildlife habitat all woven together.

Discovering New England wetlands

When I moved north, I discovered a completely different wetland world. New England bogs, beaver ponds, wooded swamps, marshes, and floodplains changed dramatically through the year. Spring floods, summer growth, autumn color, and winter ice made the same place feel new every few months.

I came to appreciate the small wetlands just as much as the dramatic ones. A shallow depression that was dry by midsummer might still be essential breeding habitat for amphibians. A brushy wet meadow might connect two larger habitats. A beaver pond could transform an entire valley and create opportunities for everything from waterfowl to dragonflies.

Put your boots on and get out there and explore — preferably before the mosquitoes return!

Protecting wetlands in Ashburnham

From 1999 through 2005, much of my work with both the Ashburnham Conservation Commission and the Ashburnham Conservation Trust centered on protecting wetlands and the surrounding uplands from development. Wetlands rarely survive as healthy islands. They need buffers, connected forests, intact headwaters, and room for water to spread naturally across the landscape.

We worked to preserve land before it was fragmented, to protect wildlife corridors, and to keep development away from sensitive wet areas whenever possible. That meant studying parcels, walking boundaries, working with landowners, building partnerships, helping arrange conservation restrictions and land acquisitions, and explaining why places that looked “unused” were often performing vital ecological work.

The goal was not simply to save attractive scenery. It was to protect entire systems: wetlands, streams, groundwater, wildlife habitat, and the uplands that sustain them. Those years taught me that local conservation can be extraordinarily effective when people are willing to organize, study the land carefully, and act before the bulldozers arrive.

Wetlands in Ashburnham, Massachusetts — Wetlands in Ashburnham — part of the interconnected landscape we worked to protect from development.

Wetlands as classroom and workplace

My formal education in ecology and field biology gave me the scientific language for things I had been observing since childhood. Hydrology, hydric soils, vegetation, water quality, wildlife habitat, seasonal flooding, and watershed processes all meet in wetlands. They are among the best places imaginable for understanding how an ecosystem actually works.

My professional life repeatedly brought me back to water. I worked as a field biologist and later spent twenty-one years with the U.S. Geological Survey as a hydrologic technician and field biologist. Rivers, floodplains, marshes, ponds, and tidal systems were not occasional destinations; they were often my workplace. One of the great turning points in my life was a temporary six-week USGS assignment canoeing the Ipswich River. That project led to a career that allowed me to keep learning from water and landscapes for more than two decades.

Some days involved canoes and hip boots. Others involved streamgages, GPS equipment, hydroacoustic instruments, flood measurements, storm-surge sensors, or documenting high-water marks after hurricanes. That work reinforced something wetlands had already taught me: water connects everything, and decisions made far upstream eventually show up somewhere downstream.

Wetland vegetation and open water near Byfield — The best way to understand many wetlands is slowly — from a canoe or kayak, close to the water and quiet enough to notice what appears.

Exploring from the water

Outside of work, paddling became one of my favorite ways to experience wetlands. A kayak or canoe lets you enter quietly, follow natural channels, and observe wildlife without forcing your way through the landscape.

I have paddled through mangrove tunnels, cypress swamps, spring runs, salt marshes, tidal creeks, blackwater rivers, and broad floodplains. Allen's Creek, Hurricane Pass, Cross Bayou, Long Bayou, the Cotee, Weeki Wachee, Chassahowitzka, the Suwannee, the Hillsborough River's Seventeen Runs, and the Everglades each have a completely different personality.

Some feel peaceful and open. Others feel tangled, mysterious, and almost prehistoric. The pace is slower, and that is part of the attraction. The longer you sit quietly, the more the wetland reveals.

Why wetlands matter

Wetlands are not empty land waiting to be filled. They protect water quality, store floodwater, reduce erosion, support fish and wildlife, recharge groundwater in many settings, and keep water moving through a watershed during dry periods. They also provide nursery habitat, migration stopovers, carbon storage, and some of the richest biological communities on Earth.

Natural sponges

Wetlands slow, spread, and temporarily store water, reducing downstream flood peaks.

Living filters

Wetland soils and vegetation trap sediment and transform or retain many pollutants and nutrients.

Wildlife nurseries

Fish, amphibians, birds, reptiles, mammals, and countless invertebrates depend on wetland habitats.

Connected landscapes

Wetlands link uplands, streams, rivers, estuaries, and groundwater into functioning watersheds.

Autumn trees reflected in a New England pond — New England wetlands are especially beautiful as the seasons change.

A place to slow down

Perhaps what I love most about wetlands is the pace. You cannot really understand a marsh by rushing through it. You have to stop, listen, watch the water, and give wildlife time to forget you are there.

I have spent much of my life exploring mountains, deserts, oceans, forests, and rivers. But when I picture a place where I feel completely at home, it is often somewhere quiet and wet — sitting low in a kayak, camera nearby, watching the world wake up around me.

Current wetland resources

The original version of this page contained a large collection of wetland links from the late 1990s. Many of those sites have moved or disappeared, so this updated list favors current official and professional resources.