WEBVTT - Wetlands! Wetlands! Wetlands! 0:00:05.519 --> 0:00:08.479 Hi, everybody. Chuck back again with another edition, I believe 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:11.840 number eight in our Thanks spring the playlist, and today 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:15.040 you're going to be learning all about wetlands because the 0:00:15.120 --> 0:00:19.800 name of the episode is wetlands exclamation point, Wetlands exclamation point, 0:00:20.079 --> 0:00:22.000 wetlands exclamation point. 0:00:22.520 --> 0:00:25.079 Can you tell we love wetlands? I think you will too. 0:00:31.080 --> 0:00:34.200 Welcome to Stuff you should Know a production of Iheartradios 0:00:34.240 --> 0:00:35.160 How Stuff Works. 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:44.760 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:47.600 Charles and Jerry's over there, and this is stuff you 0:00:47.640 --> 0:00:50.559 should know, the Dripping Wet. 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:54.200 Edition in These wet Lands. 0:00:56.680 --> 0:00:59.000 What I knew that you would not get? That? Is 0:00:59.040 --> 0:01:00.720 that a secret reference? 0:01:00.960 --> 0:01:03.200 Oh gosh, why do you have to say Segar when 0:01:03.240 --> 0:01:04.480 you always mean Springsteen? 0:01:05.360 --> 0:01:10.680 Was that Springsteen? Yeah? It's bad lands, Okay, baby, These 0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:12.040 wetlands are born to run. 0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:14.280 Sure, run water. 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:18.800 I don't. I don't like myself anymore. Run water. That 0:01:18.880 --> 0:01:22.759 was a great save, Chuck. Thanks, So we're talking wetlands. 0:01:22.800 --> 0:01:25.639 I have to say we have to give a shout 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:29.920 out to Tom Peterman, the foul mouthed wetland biologist who 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:32.280 keeps asking us to do this episode. Oh is that 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:34.640 where this came from mm hmm. It was a Tom 0:01:34.680 --> 0:01:37.880 Peterman suggestion, although I had already wanted to do it anyway. 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:40.760 So yeah, I mean, we love our sciences, man. This 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:43.720 one was I was just smiling from ear to ear 0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:44.880 researching this. 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:50.760 Can you imagine watching a blacksmith forge something in a wetland, 0:01:51.120 --> 0:01:52.360 in a flooded woodland? 0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:56.600 No, I just that's nirvana right there, It really is. 0:01:58.040 --> 0:02:01.840 So we're talking wetlands everybody. And Dave Ruz helped us 0:02:01.840 --> 0:02:04.680 put this one together. A good one. And Dave likes 0:02:04.720 --> 0:02:06.600 to pop in jokes every once in a while. And 0:02:06.680 --> 0:02:11.079 he said does He said, what makes a wetland wet water? 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:15.720 And then he says, in all seriousness, that's basically that 0:02:15.800 --> 0:02:20.280 the water has to be largely present at least some 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:23.079 parts of the year in the soil, in such amounts 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:25.679 that you would call something wetland. I mean, think of 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:29.560 the name wet land. It's about as earthy a term 0:02:29.600 --> 0:02:31.280 as science gets. 0:02:31.480 --> 0:02:34.800 Yeah, And he frontloaded this with a few stats and 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:36.280 I won't go through all of them, but I'll go 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:40.480 through a few that kind of are instructive as to 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:45.440 why I love wetland so much. Here's one, although wetlands 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:47.480 make up only five percent of the land surface in 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:50.520 the United States, they are home to thirty one percent 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:54.959 of our plant species. Yeah, not bad. One third of 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:59.400 America's threatened or endangered species species live only in wetlands. 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:02.440 I would propose that that's slightly misleading. I think they're 0:03:02.520 --> 0:03:06.239 endangered because they live in wetlands, and wetlands are endangered, 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:10.119 as we'll see. Hmm, think about it, Chuck. 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:13.360 I don't know. I took it more as like they're. 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:15.440 All hiding out in the wetlands because it's a terrible 0:03:15.440 --> 0:03:16.240 place to hide out. 0:03:16.440 --> 0:03:18.800 No, it's not bad because it's got thirty one percent 0:03:18.800 --> 0:03:20.600 of the plant species. I mean, it's a pretty rich, 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:25.480 biodiverse area to live in if you're an endangered species. 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:30.959 For sure. All right, Tomato, Well, we'll have to hear 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:34.880 from Thomas Peterman, the Foulmouth Wildlife for Wetland biologists, who 0:03:34.880 --> 0:03:35.640 can let us know. 0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:39.160 What does he say, like, do f and wetlands already? Yes, 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:42.240 that kind of thing. Yeah, I like this guy. 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:44.120 I think that's an exact quote. 0:03:44.720 --> 0:03:45.839 Yeah, he's my kind of dude. 0:03:47.520 --> 0:03:49.920 So another stat that I thought was pretty interesting that 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:53.480 we'll just kind of needs to form the basis or 0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:56.840 the undercurrent of this whole episode is that, so we 0:03:56.920 --> 0:03:59.080 keep talking about the US. There's wetlands found all over 0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:02.080 the world of different types and varieties and different climates 0:04:02.080 --> 0:04:06.360 and different different continents, every continent except Antarctica. But in 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:09.400 the United States in particular, we have a long history 0:04:09.440 --> 0:04:13.800 of filling in and draining wetlands for other purposes. Yeah, 0:04:13.880 --> 0:04:18.159 so much so that let's see, I believe I don't 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:20.880 know how much we've lost, but in the sixteen hundreds, 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:23.799 the Lower forty eight States were covered with two hundred 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:27.160 and twenty million acres of wetlands, which is eleven percent 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:29.919 of the total surface area of the Lower forty eight States. 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:33.000 And I think starting in the fifties we were doing 0:04:33.040 --> 0:04:35.719 away with wetlands at a rate of about sixty thousand 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:37.080 of those acres per year. 0:04:37.760 --> 0:04:40.240 Yeah, and it's gotten better since then. But yeah, in 0:04:40.279 --> 0:04:42.839 the boy up until the Clean Water Act, it was 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:45.800 just like, hey, you know, it looked great. There a 0:04:46.920 --> 0:04:50.279 resort right with like three golf courses and a bunch 0:04:50.360 --> 0:04:51.040 of tennis. 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:54.320 That's been such a driving force, Like it's it's like 0:04:54.400 --> 0:04:57.200 looking at land or ecosystems of being like are humans 0:04:57.240 --> 0:04:59.719 making money off of it. No, well, then drain it 0:04:59.720 --> 0:05:02.400 and re purpose it. Set it on fire and repurpose it. 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:04.960 Stop it from burning, and repurpose it. Like, if we 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:07.799 can't make money off of it, it can't possibly be useful. 0:05:07.839 --> 0:05:11.360 And luckily, since the environmental movement really started in the seventies, 0:05:11.400 --> 0:05:14.920 we've realized that that's not necessarily true. That even if 0:05:14.960 --> 0:05:17.920 you are just a heartless dummy, there's still a lot 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:21.960 of benefits that humanity's given from things like wetlands that 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:25.600 seem problematic or non productive. You know. 0:05:25.880 --> 0:05:29.160 Yeah, that was one of Dangerfield's big lines in Caddyshack, 0:05:29.320 --> 0:05:34.800 as al Cervik was a golf courses and cemeteries the 0:05:34.880 --> 0:05:36.919 two biggest waste of prime real estate. 0:05:38.279 --> 0:05:39.119 That's a good one. 0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:41.440 So let's talk about wetlands. You said that they are 0:05:41.560 --> 0:05:44.560 only some of them are only wet for short periods, 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:46.520 sometimes when they're snow, melt or just rain. 0:05:47.080 --> 0:05:49.960 Yeah, those are called ephemeral wetlands, which is a cool term. 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:52.440 That's a great term. Some are wet all the time, 0:05:53.080 --> 0:05:56.320 and the key parts of being a wetland or the 0:05:56.400 --> 0:06:01.560 key characteristic is that it's either permanently or periodically flooded 0:06:01.680 --> 0:06:06.880 or wet and that the soil is got it's called 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:10.520 hydric soil and is dominated by anaerobic processes, meaning it 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:13.520 loves water and the plants there love water. 0:06:13.960 --> 0:06:16.560 Which is weird because you used another word that shouldn't 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:19.440 really jibe with plants, and that's called anaerobic, which means 0:06:19.720 --> 0:06:23.760 there's very little to no oxygen present. And we'll explain 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:26.280 why later. But the fact that there are plants means 0:06:26.279 --> 0:06:28.919 that those plants have adapted to the wetlands, yes, and 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:30.440 it makes anaerobic. 0:06:29.960 --> 0:06:33.520 Condition hydrophytic, and we'll talk about those plants later. It's 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:36.560 another thing I love about wetlands. It's just that it 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:40.680 really underscores the remarkable evolution that something will go through 0:06:40.680 --> 0:06:41.200 to survive. 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:46.320 Very cool, very very awesome. Yeap. So there's also so 0:06:46.640 --> 0:06:50.920 you hit upon something like they're not necessarily wet year round, 0:06:51.560 --> 0:06:54.080 right right. So there's a whole bunch of different types 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:59.520 of wetlands or wetland environments that fill those that check 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:03.200 those by. One of the ones that most people think 0:07:03.200 --> 0:07:06.080 of when they think of wetlands or coastal wetlands, like 0:07:06.279 --> 0:07:10.240 marshes and a marsh is basically like this area between 0:07:10.760 --> 0:07:13.880 inland and the ocean. It's like a transition zone, a 0:07:13.880 --> 0:07:17.320 buffer zone. And because it's because of its proximity to 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:21.400 the ocean, it's usually salty or at least brackish, which 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:25.040 is a mixture of salt water and freshwater. And the 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:27.320 one of the ones that really come to mind if 0:07:27.320 --> 0:07:30.760 you're thinking coastal wetlands, you're thinking marshlands, and you're thinking 0:07:30.840 --> 0:07:34.240 title Marshlands, probably especially if you're a Pat Conroy fan. 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:40.800 What was the name of her character that he repeats 0:07:41.000 --> 0:07:42.560 over and over in a whisper. 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:47.360 I think I remember, Chuck. It was Bobby Jim, Bobby Jim. 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:50.760 This is one of those scream at the at the 0:07:50.800 --> 0:07:51.880 pod player moments. 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:55.080 Was it in? Was it in the Prince of Tides? Yeah? 0:07:55.280 --> 0:07:55.880 Lowenstein? 0:07:56.080 --> 0:07:59.280 Was that it lost? You're sure it wasn't Bobby Jim. 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:01.840 I think it was low Was it his oh his 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:05.920 shrinks his shrink girlfriend's name, yeah, Babs, Okay, yeah, I 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:07.600 don't remember. He goes Lowenstein. 0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:11.520 All right, So anyway, tidle Marshes, Yes, Prince of Tides. 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:15.240 They obviously you're it's because they're tidal. They're going to 0:08:15.320 --> 0:08:17.280 come in and out with the high and low tide. 0:08:18.000 --> 0:08:21.040 And like you said, they are generally salt water, and 0:08:21.200 --> 0:08:24.080 the salt marshes are very nutrient rich, and they do 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:27.520 have a lot of diversity, but obviously only the kind 0:08:27.560 --> 0:08:30.120 of things that can tolerate the salt as far as 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:31.680 plants and animals. 0:08:31.280 --> 0:08:34.360 Go, which is a pretty short list really, because salt 0:08:34.480 --> 0:08:39.280 is not conducive to life. Instead, there are some plants 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:42.320 that have figured out how to deal with salt, but 0:08:42.559 --> 0:08:44.600 most of the time when you're looking at salt marshes, 0:08:44.640 --> 0:08:48.040 you're looking the plant life is basically grass as of 0:08:48.080 --> 0:08:53.959 some sort. Right, there's also freshwater title marshes, which they 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:59.000 are either connected to the salt water marsh, but they're 0:08:59.120 --> 0:09:01.600 far enough inland that the salt water doesn't make its 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:04.480 way in there, so it's a freshwater marsh, but it 0:09:04.559 --> 0:09:07.640 still is affected by the tides. And then I had 0:09:07.800 --> 0:09:11.320 no idea about this, and I used to vacation on 0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:14.000 Lake Erie. But apparently the Great Lakes are so big 0:09:14.240 --> 0:09:16.280 that they have tides themselves. 0:09:16.320 --> 0:09:16.920 You didn't know that. 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:18.520 I had no idea. 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:20.520 I even knew that, And I'm a dumb dumb when 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:21.720 it comes to the Great Lakes. 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:24.760 Well, Chuck, I think you got me beat. Big time. 0:09:25.000 --> 0:09:27.200 Well in this case, because I could know a million 0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:29.120 other things about the Great Lakes, and if you knew 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:30.880 that one thing and I didn't, you have me beat. 0:09:31.400 --> 0:09:34.240 Yeah, I knew that, And so that means that they 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:37.920 do have those tidal marshes. The Florida Everglades are another 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:41.920 good example. And boy, Florida just there's a lot of 0:09:41.960 --> 0:09:43.920 different types of wetlands in Florida. 0:09:44.000 --> 0:09:46.000 Well, there's a lot of coastline. 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:49.640 Yeah, a lot of coastline and a lot of interior wetness. 0:09:50.440 --> 0:09:52.760 Yeah. We have a lot of wetlands around our place 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:56.000 in Florida, for sure. And there's mangroves and all sorts 0:09:56.000 --> 0:09:57.160 of stuff that we'll talk about. 0:09:57.520 --> 0:09:59.480 Well, we're at mangroves. I love those things. 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:03.719 So mangroves, you don't think they at least deserve a 0:10:03.880 --> 0:10:06.920 short stuff because they're one of the most amazing plants 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:10.240 of all time. But there they are. They're a type 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:15.240 of coastal coastal wetland themselves, a mangrove forest where if 0:10:15.240 --> 0:10:18.040 you've never seen a mangro forest, they're these kind of 0:10:18.880 --> 0:10:23.080 they have a growth habit for their the shrubbery on 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:26.480 top of like the hair that umpa lupa has in 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:30.559 the original, the original Willy Wonka, the good one, and 0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:37.480 the trunks split out into these cool like long roots 0:10:37.480 --> 0:10:40.440 and legs that stick up out of the water, and 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:43.840 they form this huge tangle, this riot of like shrub 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:47.840 woody shrub, and they do all sorts of amazing things 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:51.199 to help the aquatic life and us humans as well 0:10:51.280 --> 0:10:53.400 up on land just by being present. 0:10:53.760 --> 0:10:56.640 Yeah, they're really cool looking. And this is another good one, 0:10:56.679 --> 0:10:59.160 sort of like the Origami that if you're able and 0:10:59.200 --> 0:11:01.439 you're sitting still, to look up a lot of these 0:11:01.480 --> 0:11:04.920 things as you go, because these mangrove for us, it 0:11:05.080 --> 0:11:08.720 looks like it looks like a shrub. That's like I 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:10.600 really want to be a shrub, but I don't want 0:11:10.600 --> 0:11:13.680 to get wet, so I'm just gonna dip my legs 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:14.319 in a little bit. 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:15.920 Yeah, that's really great. 0:11:16.040 --> 0:11:20.400 It's just very cool looking. And again just the adaptability 0:11:20.440 --> 0:11:22.720 that these mangroves really want to live where they live, 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:25.560 even though it's not very suited for them, and they've 0:11:25.600 --> 0:11:26.560 become suited for it. 0:11:27.600 --> 0:11:31.720 Right, if you've been sleeping on mangroves, Welcome to reality. 0:11:32.840 --> 0:11:34.440 Well that's a T shirt if I ever heard one. 0:11:34.640 --> 0:11:36.679 Yeah, that's all. I could use a little work. But 0:11:36.720 --> 0:11:38.560 there's the beginnings of one in there. 0:11:39.080 --> 0:11:42.160 You also got your inland wetlands. These are not coastal 0:11:42.600 --> 0:11:46.200 in this case. We're talking about swamps and marshes and 0:11:46.360 --> 0:11:52.360 bogs and fens, f e en and marshes. A lot 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:56.479 of these you'll find near rivers, near streams, lowland depressions, 0:11:56.600 --> 0:11:59.920 and they might periodically fill up depending on rain, what's 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:03.040 going on, or different types of flooding that might happen, 0:12:03.440 --> 0:12:04.960 and they can be a few inches deep, they can 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:05.960 be several feet deep. 0:12:06.440 --> 0:12:12.640 Yeah. Most of the non tidal inland marshes are ephemeral wetlands. Yeah, 0:12:12.800 --> 0:12:15.720 so they're dry a lot of the year. They might 0:12:15.800 --> 0:12:18.760 fill up seasonally, they might fill up with the rains. 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:21.439 They might fill up with the nearby river flooding. It's 0:12:21.480 --> 0:12:24.840 like my backyard and they oh, really is that right? 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:27.520 Yeah, it doesn't drain. Well, I've got a drainage problem. 0:12:27.840 --> 0:12:31.839 Okay, to you, it's a problem to nature. It's wonderful 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:35.360 because we'd like things that drain really quickly and dry 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:37.120 and then we can walk on them and the grass 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:40.280 is fine. But there's a lot of benefits to things 0:12:40.280 --> 0:12:44.280 that take their time. Like there's something called a vernal pool, 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:49.080 which is a kind of non tidal marsh, an ephemeral wetland, 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:52.239 and it's basically just like say a stretch of woods 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:54.320 that's a little bit depressed there, so that when it 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:57.319 rains or river floods, it fills with water. And because 0:12:57.360 --> 0:13:00.720 the underlying bedrock or clay is not very poorous, it 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:02.920 takes a while for that water to go through. But 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:06.400 that water is also not going further downstream, so it 0:13:06.440 --> 0:13:08.720 prevents flooding from being as bad as it could because 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:11.280 a lot of the water collects and stays there, and 0:13:11.360 --> 0:13:15.480 it also slowly recharges the ground water. And because it 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:19.240 does get dry, it can't sustain fish, which makes it 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:23.000 a really great nursery for things like newts and salamanders 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:27.520 and frogs, things that fish eat their eggs, but since 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:29.480 there's no fish, this is like a really great place 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:33.400 for them to get a good foothole and a brand 0:13:33.440 --> 0:13:34.319 new life. 0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:39.160 You've also got your prairie potholes. This is when you 0:13:39.160 --> 0:13:41.440 should definitely look up. These are usually in the upper 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:45.560 Midwest of the United States, the Dakota's, Minnesota, maybe Wisconsin, 0:13:46.280 --> 0:13:49.280 and these are where glaciers ancient glaciers left these big 0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:53.880 depressions in the landscape and they fill up sometimes during rain, 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:58.160 during the spring, during snow melt. And they're not small 0:13:58.240 --> 0:13:59.959 like I heard our prairie pothole and I got to 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:02.760 vision in my head. But if you look it up online, 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:05.920 they're beautiful and just they're very large though, and they're 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:09.880 kind of interconnected, just these big round holes scattered through 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:12.079 like a big open area full of water. And these 0:14:12.080 --> 0:14:16.680 are great for migrating birds because that could be a 0:14:16.720 --> 0:14:20.240 stopover that they might not have had had those potholes 0:14:20.280 --> 0:14:20.840 not been there. 0:14:22.040 --> 0:14:24.240 And when they're flying over the Dakotas, they say, look, 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:30.480 I see Van Nostron's house, our buddy Van Nostrin. And 0:14:30.520 --> 0:14:34.200 then there's also we said that wetlands occur in all 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:36.400 different kinds of climates. They also occur in the desert. 0:14:36.440 --> 0:14:40.000 There's something called Plia lakes, which are these depressions that 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:42.800 apparently no one has any idea exactly how they formed. 0:14:42.800 --> 0:14:44.520 It could have been from erosion, it could have been 0:14:44.520 --> 0:14:47.520 from an ancient sinkhole. But there are depressions that are 0:14:47.520 --> 0:14:50.920 deep enough that when the seasonal rains come, the water 0:14:51.240 --> 0:14:54.560 is held in there and just like the prairie potholes. 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:58.360 It's very useful for migratory birds to stop over at 0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:02.200 can really plays a huge role in this ecosystem where 0:15:02.240 --> 0:15:04.760 there's almost no water, and now all of a sudden, 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:07.200 there's water, and it's in this nice little lake. So 0:15:07.280 --> 0:15:09.440 let's all go gather there and have a social hour, 0:15:09.720 --> 0:15:12.240 but responsibly six feet apart. 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:15.400 That's right, Okay, I think we should take a break 0:15:16.600 --> 0:15:19.040 and we will talk a little bit about inland swamps 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:41.720 right after this. All right, So inland swamps we promised 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:45.040 to talk about that. These are, for my money, some 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:49.600 of the coolest areas in the country, because I think 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:51.200 I talked about it at some point. But I took 0:15:51.240 --> 0:15:54.560 a very special fun trip many many years ago to 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:58.040 the Okefinoki Swamp and did one of those canoe trips 0:15:58.560 --> 0:16:00.960 where you have to rent. You know, there's no place 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:03.400 to stop in the Okey Pinocchi Swamp if you're like, 0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:07.200 I think i'll camp here, it's like in the water, right, 0:16:07.240 --> 0:16:09.960 So they had these camping pads built up, essentially just 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:14.200 decks that are like six feet above the water, and 0:16:14.280 --> 0:16:16.840 you have to reserve those. They're not just wide open 0:16:16.880 --> 0:16:19.760 for anyone because there's nothing else out there, so you 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:23.560 have to reserve them for specific nights on these specific 0:16:24.080 --> 0:16:27.480 pathways or you know, paddle ways. And me and a 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:29.200 couple of buddies did it one year and we canued 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:33.800 from from deck to deck and very cool. It was amazing, 0:16:33.880 --> 0:16:35.840 Like one of the coolest trips I've ever taken. 0:16:36.080 --> 0:16:38.680 That is very cool was ned Baby with you. 0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:41.920 No, but you do wake up surrounded by alligators. It's 0:16:42.040 --> 0:16:43.440 a little creepy. 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:45.680 Yes, alligators are very creepy, Like. 0:16:45.880 --> 0:16:48.400 You wake up on that pad and pee off the 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:50.000 dock and they're growling at you. 0:16:50.520 --> 0:16:52.440 Yeah, and you do not want to get too close 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:54.200 because they can move faster than you think. 0:16:54.440 --> 0:16:56.800 Yeah, they can. It was a lot of fun though, 0:16:56.840 --> 0:16:58.880 but not for the faint of heart, because you know, 0:16:58.920 --> 0:17:01.720 you don't realize until you out there, a how bad 0:17:01.760 --> 0:17:04.240 the sun is going to beat you up because there's 0:17:04.280 --> 0:17:08.000 no shade, and b how tough it is to paddle 0:17:08.640 --> 0:17:11.360 all day long without like, you know, let me get 0:17:11.359 --> 0:17:14.080 out and stretch my legs, right, I mean, there is 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:17.840 no getting out. You just go and go and go, 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:20.720 and by the time you finally reach that janky deck, 0:17:20.840 --> 0:17:23.840 it is like, might as well be the plaza hotel, 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:26.960 you know, Oh nice, But what I'm talking about in 0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:29.280 the case of the Okefinoki, I thought it was a 0:17:29.320 --> 0:17:33.320 forested or a bottom bottom land hardwood swamp, you'd think 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:37.080 from reading this, But apparently it's called a non riverine 0:17:37.359 --> 0:17:40.879 swamp forest, right, And that is a forested swamp that 0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:45.720 fills up from non river sources, basically rain or groundwater. 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:49.280 Right right. So the what would make a forested swamp 0:17:49.359 --> 0:17:52.119 like a bottom land hardwood swamp is a proximity to 0:17:52.200 --> 0:17:55.720 a river that floods its banks or that is just 0:17:55.800 --> 0:17:58.159 so so big it kind of spills over into some 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:00.920 of the surrounding land, and that surrounding land is swamp. 0:18:00.960 --> 0:18:02.440 I want to look that up, though I'm not quite 0:18:02.440 --> 0:18:03.280 your name's right. 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:06.680 Well, it's okay. It's so it's either river fed or 0:18:06.720 --> 0:18:11.399 groundwater fed or precipitation fed. And if you're talking bottomland 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:15.840 hardwood swamps, that's or a river fed swamp. There's usually 0:18:15.880 --> 0:18:19.840 also a shrub swamp, which is a transition or buffer 0:18:19.920 --> 0:18:24.280 zone between the forested swamp and you know, somebody's backyard, 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:27.159 which is it's just dominated by shrubs. But it's all 0:18:27.160 --> 0:18:29.640 the same thing. It's all freshwater swamp. 0:18:29.440 --> 0:18:31.640 Yeah, I think I bet you anything that ok Fino 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:34.800 has several different types of these. It would be my guess, 0:18:35.160 --> 0:18:38.639 because there were full on lakes that we paddled through. Yeah, 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:40.680 so that would be my guess. And I also think 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:42.359 if I had a country band, they would we would 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:44.879 be the Bottomland hardwood swamp rats. 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:47.240 Oh that's a good one, not bad. That sounds like 0:18:47.280 --> 0:18:48.439 an all star band, you know. 0:18:48.640 --> 0:18:49.160 Oh sure. 0:18:49.280 --> 0:18:52.680 Yeah, So another kind of wetland that you're going to 0:18:52.720 --> 0:18:55.920 find all over the place, especially in Europe, which when 0:18:55.920 --> 0:18:58.080 I think of bogs and fens, I think of Europe, 0:18:58.119 --> 0:19:01.160 but apparently plenty of them in the United States too, 0:19:01.800 --> 0:19:05.360 But bogs and fens are kind of their own thing. 0:19:06.160 --> 0:19:09.080 Bogs in particular are very unique as far as wetlands go, 0:19:09.240 --> 0:19:13.800 because not only are they anaerobic, which by definition wetland 0:19:13.920 --> 0:19:19.640 is anaerobic soil, they're like very little nutrient and very 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:23.840 high acidity. I've heard like the kind of acid that 0:19:24.000 --> 0:19:27.399 is put out by the peat that's created in the 0:19:27.440 --> 0:19:31.560 bog has the same acidity roughly of vinegar. It's like 0:19:31.600 --> 0:19:35.280 a yeah, it's really really acidic stuff, and yet some 0:19:35.440 --> 0:19:38.560 plants prefer it, like you can grow cranberries and blueberries 0:19:38.800 --> 0:19:42.160 in a bog. Sure you can preserve a body from 0:19:42.160 --> 0:19:45.000 the Iron Age forward. And do we ever coover that 0:19:45.200 --> 0:19:46.000 the bog bodies. 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:48.720 I feel like we did. Maybe it might have been 0:19:48.760 --> 0:19:51.720 one of our video things on YouTube. 0:19:51.600 --> 0:19:54.639 Maybe mummies, because I think if I remember correctly, our 0:19:54.720 --> 0:19:58.399 Mummy episode covered more than just Egyptian mummies that they covered, 0:19:58.400 --> 0:20:01.480 like Inca mummies and the people. I'm sure we did. 0:20:01.640 --> 0:20:04.280 We saw some and when we went to uh on 0:20:04.320 --> 0:20:07.280 our UK trip, we got to visit some of those cats, 0:20:07.560 --> 0:20:11.760 like first hand, like right there in that in that glass, right, 0:20:12.160 --> 0:20:13.800 you know I have to do is smash it with 0:20:13.800 --> 0:20:14.760 a hammer and it's yours. 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:17.160 You got a bog person, yeah, or at least whatever 0:20:17.200 --> 0:20:19.000 you can grab like a bog ear. 0:20:19.960 --> 0:20:23.000 Right just crumbles in your hand. But I was like, 0:20:23.160 --> 0:20:26.200 I was like, okay, why why are the the the 0:20:26.240 --> 0:20:28.960 bogs so great for preservation? Part of it, from what 0:20:29.000 --> 0:20:32.480 I understand, is that acidity that the bodies are actually pickled. 0:20:32.800 --> 0:20:38.720 But another part is the the aerobic life is so 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:43.119 devoid there. There's just anaerobic bacteria and they don't decompose 0:20:43.200 --> 0:20:46.600 nearly as well as aerobic bacteria. So the decomposition doesn't 0:20:46.640 --> 0:20:50.399 set in and the remains are pickled, So like you 0:20:50.440 --> 0:20:53.119 can preserve a body in a really great state. Yeah, 0:20:53.520 --> 0:20:57.320 for a very like Toland man. You could his whiskers 0:20:57.320 --> 0:20:59.919 are still intact on his face. Yeah, like that was 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:03.120 the level of preservation. And he was sacrificed into a bog, 0:21:03.119 --> 0:21:04.960 which is a very specific kind of wetland. 0:21:05.440 --> 0:21:07.680 Yeah, and a fin, like I said, it's f e 0:21:07.800 --> 0:21:10.840 n it's sort of like a bog in that it 0:21:10.880 --> 0:21:15.160 is a peat peaty wetland. But they're a little bit 0:21:15.160 --> 0:21:19.240 different than bogs. The water supply doesn't come primarily from 0:21:19.320 --> 0:21:22.080 rain and it comes from the ground, so it's not 0:21:22.160 --> 0:21:24.280 it's gonna be less acidic because I don't think we 0:21:24.440 --> 0:21:27.399 mentioned mentioned. I know it's partially because of the peat, 0:21:27.440 --> 0:21:31.120 but the acidity also comes from the fact that there's 0:21:31.320 --> 0:21:34.520 acid and rain that gets filling up, that fills up 0:21:34.560 --> 0:21:37.400 these bogs, right, But not the case in a fin. 0:21:37.720 --> 0:21:41.080