Wetland Plants and Animals
When you enter a wetlands habitat, you are entering an environment that supports thousands of plants,
hundreds of birds, and almost all of the fish and shellfish that we consume. Permanent residents of wetlands in
the Intermountain West include algae, bacteria, and other micro-organisms; animals such as
the mosquito, dragonfly, and numerous aquatic insects, plus toads, the leopard frog, tiger salamander, pupfish, crayfish, beaver, muskrat; plants such as sedges and bulrushes, berry bushes, shrub willows, and cottonwoods. Seasonal residents include the American peregrine falcon, the whooping crane, ducks, geese, swans, numerous sparrows and warblers, bitterns, avocets, black-necked stilts, deer, elk, bats, black bear, brown bear, bald eagle, osprey, trout, and salmon.
 Wild Iris.
(Iris missouriensis) |
Rare Species and Wetlands
Almost half of the threatened and endangered species in the United States rely directly or indirectly on wetlands
for their survival. In Idaho, for example, 49 species of rare plants and 29 species of rare animals depend on wetlands.
Wetland Plants
Some wetland plants include alder, willow, cottonwood, cattails, sedges, rushes, and bulrushes. Others include beautiful purple camas, wild iris, and chokecherry. Many of these wetland plants provide food, shelter, perch sites, and nesting areas for wildlife. Have you ever walked under a willow and felt a cool mist in the air? Wetland plants keep it cool with their shade and the water transpired through their leaves.
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