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A Cross Country Road Trip: Wetlands of the West

Written on: July 22nd, 2024 in Outreach, Wetland Research

By Alison Stouffer, DNREC’s Wetland Monitoring and Assessment Program

Have you ever wondered what wetlands look like around the country? For the most dedicated among us, you might travel to all 50 states to find out. Alternatively, you can grab your favorite car snack (mine is Twizzlers), get comfy on the couch, and buckle your metaphorical seatbelt as you join me on the first installment of the WMAP cross country road trip. Today we are headed to the wetlands of the western United States!

Despite covering almost half of the land area of the United States, the western states, specifically west of the Rockies, contain very few wetlands. Less than 5% of each state is covered by wetlands, excluding Alaska, which boasts 43% land cover by wetlands (the largest in the US!) ¹. However, the West is a highly varied region of the country where you can find marine west coast forest, tundra, desert, boreal forest, rocky shores, northwestern forested mountains, great plains, and tropical forests. With such a wide range of ecosystems comes a wide range of wetland types.

As each state contains multiple types of wetlands, we have a road trip packed full of interesting stops which only allows time for the occasional bathroom break, one wetland point-of-interest per state, and the necessary pitstops for food and fuel.

Alaska

Today we will be visiting Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska’s largest boreal wetland basin and the third largest wildlife refuge in the nation. Located at the junction of the Yukon, Porcupine, and T’eedriinjik (Chandalar) rivers, the refuge encompasses around 11.1 million acres of low-lying wetlands and a mosaic of approximately 40,000 small lakes and streams. While multiple types of wetlands are present within the Yukon Flats, boreal peatlands (specifically bogs) are of special note due to their insulating properties that help protect permafrost from thawing over the spring and summer months. This is particularly important since permafrost stores carbon, helping to combat climate change.

Washington

A short plane ride south and we are at our next stop, Mount Saint Helens Wildlife Area in the state of Washington. Encompassing approximately 10,500 acres of land, this wildlife area contains a variety of wetland and riparian habitats, including tidal mudflats. The tidal mudflats are a type of non-vegetated wetland that can be found along the North Fork Toutle River and is the result of an eruption of Mount St. Helens in the 1980s.

Oregon

It’s just a quick hop, skip, and a jump south to Oregon, where we will be trading in our vehicle for a vessel. So grab a kayak or canoe, zip up your lifejacket, and paddle on to Blind Slough Swamp Habitat Reserve. Located along the Columbia River, this habitat reserve protects a pocket of forested Sitka spruce swamp, a small remnant of a previously common wetland ecosystem that has been logged and diked for pasture. Sitka spruce trees are salt-tolerant with elevated root platforms to help them thrive in brackish swamp environments.

California

Continuing our road trip south along Highway 101 to California, we will be chugging along down to SoCal to visit an island system just offshore from Santa Barbara. Channel Islands National Park consists of 5 islands located in a unique spot with significant upwelling where cool, nutrient-rich ocean currents mix with warm coastal currents. These characteristics, in conjunction with shallow, clear waters, create the prime conditions in which seagrass (a type of submerged aquatic vegetation or SAV) beds can grow and thrive.

Nevada

Hope you’re A/C is working because it’s going to be a hot one! Having driven down the Pacific coast, we will now be turning our road trip east towards the state of Nevada and the Mojave Desert. Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge is the epitome of a desert oasis. Fueled by the Amargosa River, an underground river, this refuge encompasses approximately 12 spring systems. Pools form around these springs creating unique wetland habitats for a range of plants and animals found nowhere else in the world.

Utah

Our desert adventures continue as we head northeast to the Bonneville Salt Flats, a 30,000-acre barren patch of salt encrusted land. Crust depths range from one inch along the edges up to five feet near the center. The Bonneville Salt Flats are a remnant of the ancient Lake Bonneville, which deposited the salt layer seen today as it dried up. Despite its inhospitable appearance, the salt flats are a unique example of playa wetlands. Playas are seasonal lakes that remain dry until a rain event. For the flats, the wet season runs through the springtime, inundating the area with a thin layer of water that will eventually evaporate; thus, continuing the cycle.

Idaho

All the salt from Utah made me hungry for fries, so we shall continue our drive north to Idaho, the Potato State. With everyone’s favorite form of potato in hand, we will now be stopping to explore the freshwater marshes of Harriman State Park. Charged by Henry’s Fork of the Snake River and freshwater springs, this park boasts an abundance of marsh on the fringes of several water bodies scattered throughout the park. As such, their level of inundation varies seasonally with precipitation and water levels of the river.

Montana

Zigzagging our way east again, we are headed to the northern Great Plains of Montana to stop at a Nature Conservancy property called the Comertown Pothole Prairie Preserve. These pothole prairies formed from glaciers scraping along the terrain leaving behind a collection of small depressional wetlands that fill with snowmelt in the spring. The Preserve protects this unique ecosystem from agricultural plowing, in turn protecting a handful of threatened and endangered waterfowl and bird species that breed in the shallow waters.

Wyoming

Road trips can be long and boring with so much driving. But it is always worth it once you make it to your destination. On this stop, we will be visiting the 4^th most popular National Park in the United States, Yellowstone National Park. Wetlands account for over 10% of the park, with some hydrothermal pools – a distinguishing feature of Yellowstone – falling within this classification. While the extreme heat creates challenging conditions for survival, it hasn’t kept thermophiles (heat loving organisms) away!

Colorado

The end of our road trip is near as we continue south to my favorite state, where I was born and raised, Colorado! Rather than visiting a specific park, refuge, or preserve, I thought we would explore the fens and wet meadows of Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison (GMUG) National Forests. In Colorado, these wetlands are found in high-elevation, low temperature montane and alpine regions and are fed by snowmelt in the late spring and summer months. There are an estimated 1,700 fens within GMUG National Forests.

Hawaii

For the final stop of our wetland road trip (part 1), we will be flying to Hawai’i Island to visit Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park. Wetlands are an integral part of the natural and cultural significance of this park. One example is that of the unique anchialine pools, some of which were historically used for aquaculture. These brackish pools form in nearshore lava beds where freshwater from land mixes with saltwater from underground tunnels connecting to the ocean. Despite being a rare habitat, over 200 of the ~1,000+ pools found worldwide are located within the boundaries of the National Historical Park.

Next Stop: Wetlands of the Southwest

We covered a lot of ground on the first installment of our cross-country road trip! Those wetlands that we were fortunate enough to visit here are only a smattering of what the United States has to offer. Be sure to reserve your spot for the next chunk of our road trip, where we will be headed to the states of the Southwest. Until then, rest up, stretch out those legs, and start planning your return to these wonderful western wetlands!

1. USGS. (1997). State Summary Highlights. In: National Water Summary on Wetland Resources. https://water.usgs.gov/nwsum/WSP2425/state_highlights_summary.html.

Tags: Wetlands