What do fens do? Make peat, store water and help combat climate change
… Peatlands — fens and bogs — are key climate regulators. (Bogs are maintained by precipitation, but fens, which, in North America, occur in the Northeast, Midwest and Mountain West, depend on groundwater.) … In relatively dry southern Colorado, they also provide a secondary round of water storage. The first round is Colorado’s snowpack, which, as it melts, feeds groundwater that fens’ spongy peat captures and later releases to dwindling waterways and drying landscapes after the snow is gone. But the steep and degraded bare patch at Ophir Pass no longer functions.
Other wetlands news:
- USGS: Blog: Modeling flood-mitigation strategies in San Francisco Bay
- Sierra Club Redwoods Chapter: Blog: Student intern speaks out on wetland protection
- Daily Kos: Blog: Edmonds Marsh in September never ceases to amaze
