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Celebrate World Wetlands Day – February 2, 2004

Editorial written by Dr. Mark Gloutney, Manager of Atlantic operations for Ducks Unlimited Canada

This day is set aside to remind us that Canada was among 138 other parties to sign an intergovernmental treaty at the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands on February 2, 1971. The treaty united the parties in an agreement to designate key wetland sites around the globe as significant and requiring “conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources”. At Ducks Unlimited Canada, we celebrate this day by continuing to raise public awareness of wetland values and benefits.

Wetlands work for us. Through their beauty, diversity, and utility they store and purify freshwater, control flooding, replenish groundwater supplies, stabilize our shorelines, and act as nurseries for freshwater or marine fish. They provide us with food, water, an opportunity for recreational activities, an educational venue, and a transportation medium. Yet, in spite of all these benefits, wetlands continue to be lost.

One local reason is the increased demand for waterfront properties with the target being coastal wetlands. It is not surprising that of the 36 designated Ramsar sites in Canada, eight of these are coastal wetlands in Atlantic Canada:

  • Newfoundland: Grand Codroy Estuary located 30 km north of Port aux Basques is one of the most productive of Newfoundland’s few estuarine wetland sites.
  • Prince Edward Island: Malpeque Bay, 10 km north of Summerside, is the nesting site for the globally threatened wader Charadrius melodus [piping plover] as well as an important staging area for geese and ducks. The Bay is a key area for estuarine eelgrass marshes and supports a major habitat area for economically important shellfish production.
  • New Brunswick: Tabusintac Lagoon and River Estuary is 50 km northeast of Newcastle. An example of a coastal barrier beach and lagoon wetland ecosystem, it is an important nesting site for the globally threatened wader Charadrius melodus [piping plover]. (In 1991, 7 prs and 21 adults were recorded.)
  • Nova Scotia: Musquodoboit Harbour located 40 km northeast of Halifax supports the largest wintering population of Branta Canadensis [Atlantic brant] and Anas rubripes [black duck] in eastern Canada.
Four Ramsar sites are located at the head of the Bay of Fundy:
  • New Brunswick: Mary’s Point is a scenic coastal landscape located 40 km south east of Moncton. Its mudflats support the world's highest known density of the amphipod Corophium volutator [sand shrimp] exceeding 60,000 per square metre, which in North America occurs only in the Bay of Fundy and is the principal food source for millions of migratory shorebirds.
  • New Brunswick: Shepody Bay, 50 km south of Moncton, is an area with the largest tidal range in the world (up to 14m). During fall migration, the site supports the largest assemblage of shorebird species in all of North America (over 2 million).
  • Nova Scotia: Chignecto in the Cumberland Basin, just 5 km southwest of Amherst, is home to the largest continuous section of salt marsh left in the Bay of Fundy ecosystem, the John Lusby Salt Marsh, and the Amherst Point Sanctuary where over 200 species of birds including rare birds have been recorded. One 40 ha impoundment supports the highest nesting densities of Podilymbus podiceps [pied-billed grebes] ever recorded.
  • Nova Scotia: Southern Bight – Minus Basin lies northwest of Windsor and is a spectacular macro-tidal environment that, in the fall, supports the largest numbers of mixed species of shoreline birds in all of North America. The site regularly hosts 400,000 Calidris pusilla [semi-palmated sandpiper] that exceeds 10% of the individual population.

(Source: http://www.ramsar.org)

Ducks Unlimited Canada has been working to help secure wetlands on these Ramsar sites for many years (http://www.ramsar.org/key_ducks_report97.htm). Working in partnership with government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and citizens in numerous communities throughout Atlantic Canada, Ducks Unlimited Canada is not only restoring, managing, and conserving wetlands but is also helping to change public policy, signing landowner conservation agreements and supporting land acquisitions that will help secure wetlands for our future.

Canada has nearly 25 per cent of the Earth’s wetlands. Wetland habitats are nature’s original water filters and through natural processes, can filter over 90 per cent of common nutrient pollutants like nitrogen and phosphorus and over 70 per cent of the sediments moving through our waterways. Their natural filtering process works so well that constructed wetlands are being used to filter wastewater from sewage. When natural wetlands are teamed with constructed water treatment facilities, they contribute to the overall health of the environment and improved water quality. Safeguarding our wetlands will help to ensure that they stay healthy and continue to work to help provide us with crystal clear water for future generations of waterfowl, wildlife and people.

Remember the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands: no wetlands – no water!

For more information:

Barbara Gaurtreau-Kyle,b_gautreau-kyle@ducks.ca
Communications Manager, Atlantic Region
Ducks Unlimited Canada
Ph: (902)667-8726

 
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