Habitat for Fish, Wildlife, and Plants

Fish and wildlife use wetlands to varying degrees depending upon the species involved. Some live only in wetlands for their entire lives; others require wetland habitat for at least part of their life cycle; still others use wetlands much less frequently, generally for feeding. In other words, for many species wetlands are primary habitats, meaning that these species depend on them for survival; for others, wetlands provide important seasonal habitats, where food, water, and cover are plentiful.

For example, wetlands are essentially the permanent habitat of the beaver, muskrat, wood duck, clapper rail, mud minnow, wild rice, cattail, broadleaf arrowhead and swamp rose. For other species, such as largemouth bass, chain pickerel, woodcock, hooded warbler, otter, black bear, raccoon, and meadow vole, wetlands provide important food, water, shelter, or nesting habitat.

Numerous birds —including certain shorebirds, wading birds, and raptors, and many songbirds— feed, nest, and/or raise their young in wetlands. Migratory waterfowl, including ducks, geese, and swans, use coastal and inland wetlands as resting, feeding, breeding, or nesting grounds for at least part of the year. For example, in the Chesapeake Bay Region (a major wintering area for waterfowl), coastal wetlands supported an annual average of nearly 79,000 wintering black ducks over a 45-year period (1950-1994); over the same period, it supported an annual average of about 14,000 wintering pintails. Most of these ducks rely on the prairie potholes (depressional wetlands) in upper mid-western United States and adjacent Canada and interior wetlands in northeastern North America for nesting. Indeed, an international agreement to protect wetlands of international importance was developed because some species of migratory birds are completely dependent on certain wetlands and would become extinct if those wetlands were destroyed (read on for the economic values associated with these resources.)