Fun Wetland TV Shows

In a past SW post, I recommended some good wetland documentaries and educational films in this previous post. But wetlands show up in other types of media. Some TV shows take a less serious approach to using wetlands to set the scene. Others are educational. It’s nothing new to feature a wetland-rich setting for a TV series. But it seems like wetlands are gaining ground in popular shows like True Blood, Swamp People and The River, which premieres Feb. 7, 2012.

Mysteries of the Amazon. A new dark mystery-drama set in the Amazon called “The River” will leave you at the edge of your seat. See a trailer and explore this thriller-mystery series here.  The River looks eerie and suspenseful, and reminds me of Peter Benchley’s1999-2000 mini-series, “Amazon,” which beat the show “Lost” to the punch! Benchley’s story took place in a remote part of the Amazon rainforest, where a community of people were so isolated, they still spoke Elizabethan English and didn’t have modern conveniences—until a plane crashed, making for an intense, weird drama. (I liked it a lot, but then I am a big fan of all of Benchley’s stories. Just to get you hooked, watch Part 1 here.)

Reality TV has been the “in” thing for over a decade now. There are two wetland-related reality shows of interest. “Swamp People,” a History channel show, features the lives of alligator hunters in Louisiana. Also, an episode of Dirty Jobs: Wetland Warrior, followed TV host Mike Rowe on his adventure in the Florida Everglades.

Public Television Programs. Iowa Public Television featured a series of programs on lakes, marshes, streams, floodplains and forested wetlands. For more information about this series, go to:http://www.iptv.org/series.cfm/15216/freshwater_wetlands/ep:104/episodes

Science Education for Kids. Dragonfly TV – a public television series based in North Carolina featuring hands-on science activities and investigations had one episode that brought young girls to coastal wetlands; this led to the creation of a children’s show called “SciGirls,” which encourages girls to get interested in science.http://pbskids.org/scigirls/ This is similar in theme to Bill Nye the Science Guy’s program, which has had several episodes on wetlands (a three-part series here).

Science fiction. In this genre, the sky’s the limit. The SyFy Channel offers a few strange choices, including “Swamp Shark,” a TV movie about invasive sharks in Louisiana’s bayous that airs Saturday June 25th.  The highly anticipated 4th season of “True Blood,” a sci-fi fantasy series about vampires, werewolves and other supernatural beings in Louisiana and Mississippi just started on HBO. The show’s colorful locals frequently hunt and hide in the familiar swamps; the lead heroine, Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic waitress, lives beside a swamp and a cemetery. Incidentally, this show has a great swamp rock soundtrack!

Environmental-Themed Drama. The newest TV show with an environmental theme—and plenty of wetlands—is called “Terra Nova,” a Fox series in which a select group of people travel back in time (because humans have depleted natural resources by the year 2149) to prehistoric Earth. It’s like “Jurassic Park” in reverse. PROs: there’s a lot of vegetation and a good water supply. CONs: Large predators abound. Yes, dinosaurs. Apparently TV writers are either being pessimistic here or not interested in putting their protagonists in real-life wetland-management situations.

Update June 2012: Great A&E detective show, “The Glades” takes place in the Florida Everglades. Features environmental crime plots, endangered species, etc. It’s available on Netflix and on the A&E channel.

When Wetlands Call for the Firefighters

I was in the Wetlands this morning, just exploring
around, and on my way back I saw this strange sight.
Everything was on fire.
-Halidorn, World of Warcraft game forum

The popular multi-player video game, World of Warcraft, which I’ve never played, makes regular appearances on my Googlesearches for wetlands because it has a zone called “The Wetlands.” I came across the above quote about wetlands on fire and it reminded me of a past Compleat Wetlanderpost on the role of fire in wetlands http://aswm.org/wordpress/wetlands-and-fire/. As a follow-up to that post, here are some additional areas of research—of particular interest are three ways that prescribed burns are used to manage wetlands: water quality, restoration and mitigation.

The Joseph Jones Ecological Research Center in Georgia published a journal article on “Effects of Prescribed Fire on Wetland Water Quality,” based on data that the research team, including Dr. Stephen Golladay, collected 2000-2001. This is now posted on the ASWM webpage for wetlands and water quality here: http://aswm.org/wetland-programs/water-quality-standards-for-wetlands/1276-prescribed-fires-impact-on-water-quality-of-depressional-wetlands-in-southwestern-georgia Prescribed fire as a tool for wetlands restoration has been used throughout the nationhttp://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/58825/1/2.4.Robertson.pdf and is documented in the 1988 FWS biological report, on file at the USGS North American Prairie Wildlife Research Center http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/literatr/firewild/.

There are three general types of prescribed burns in wetlands: 1) surface/cover burns are cool fires used to remove organic material; 2) root burns, hotter fires that are used to control certain species; and 3) peat burns—used to create open water areas. The Phoenix Fire Department worked with wetland managers in Arizona on research related to prescribed burns in wetlands in 2004:http://phoenix.gov/TRESRIOS/research.htmlFor other examples of prescribed burns in wetland management areas, see photos from the Leopold Wetland Management District http://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwsmidwest/sets/72157626293502556/ and from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Lacreek National Wildlife Refuge:http://www.fws.gov/lacreek/fire.htm

More recently prescribed burns have been applied as part of wetland mitigation, such as the burn held this past April at the new airport site in Florida: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xi5cmg_wetlands-mitigation-prescribed-burn-at-the-new-airport-site_news and this fire managed on a wetland mitigation site in Arkansas back in March 2011: http://www.fayettevilleflyer.com/2011/03/17/prescribed-burn-on-broyles-avenue/ These prescribed burns on wetlands require a collaborative team usually involving a wildland fire division (whether state or federal), state wetland managers and wetland consultants, such as the Kevin L. Erwin Consulting Ecologist firm (KLECE) in Florida, which was involved with the Little Pine Island Mitigation Bank project in March 2011 http://environment.com/index.php/tag/prescribed-burning/ .

In addition, several other prescribed burns occurred in wetlands this spring: Chequamegon-Nicolet National Foresthttp://ashlandcurrent.com/article/11/05/25/more-prescribed-burns-chequamegon-forest North Carolina (to encourage longleaf pine)http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20110610/ARTICLES/110619991/-1/news05?Title=Work-at-Orton-will-encourage-longleaf-pine-growth and Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge (to control phragmites)http://www.thenewsherald.com/articles/2011/05/26/news/doc4ddeb12fd71a
3362017994.txt

From the wildland firefighter’s perspective, fire management guidelines described by the U.S. Forest Service include proper care and use of equipment in order to protect wetlands and water quality. The guidelines include considerations such as avoiding damage to the hydrology during planned burn operations (prescribed burns) and a recommendation to use natural fuel breaks, such as streams, as opposed to artificial fuel breaks like fire retardant. These guidelines also ensure the benefits of fire—when managed properly—to wetland ecosystems. http://nrs.fs.fed.us/fmg/nfmg/docs/mn/FireMgmt.pdf

Additionally, a recent study published in the Journal of the Ecological Society of America discusses the National Fire Plan and management techniques for forest restoration in the west.

http://www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1890/090199 Also in the current issue of Ecological Applications is an article of interest: “Variability of tundra fire regimes in Arctic Alaska: millennial-scale patterns and ecological implications” http://www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1890/11-0387.1

Dragonflies – Baby Got Brackish

In many parts of the country, we’re starting to see mosquitoes, especially after heavy rains. Mosquitoes love brackish pools, but so do gators and crocodiles, which mate this time of year…and dragonflies. Over Memorial Day weekend, I delighted in watching an army of dragonflies zip around me at killer speeds. They eat mosquitoes. So it begs the question, do more mosquitoes mean more dragonflies? If so, that would be good news for people heading outside to enjoy the warm weather. So far I’ve only had to wear my DDT-free bug spray once on a walk along the pond.

A recent New York Times article provided news about endangered species (A Coast-to-Coast Guide to Endangered Species) including the bog turtle, ringed boghaunter and the orange-striped dragonfly, which were described as some of the rarest wetland-dwelling species in the U.S. For an amazing montage of rare photos taken at the Texan Cibilo Nature Center of the orange-striped dragonfly in courtship, see: http://www.martinreid.com/
Odonata%20website/odonate37b.html

Dragonflies are generally known as freshwater insects. But recent research has demonstrated that dragonflies are no strangers to brackish environments. What is brackish water? Brackish pools, sometimes called brackish marshes, are saltier (more saline) than freshwater but not as salty as seawater. Typically brackish water occurs where the sea meets freshwater—estuaries, mangroves and saltmarshes. Many species of fish depend on these waters for their migration from the sea to rivers and streams, such as eels and salmon. In addition there are also brackish lakes, e.g. Lake Monroe in Florida and Lake Charles in Louisiana. For a photo of a dragonfly’s exoskeleton at Lake Charles, seehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/atweed/4651677110/

A relatively recent issue of Canadian Field Naturalistfeatured an article by Paul Catling on “Dragonflies Emerging from Brackish Pools of Saltmarshes in Quebec” (CAN), citing his research that showed dragonflies used salt marshes much more often than had been previously understood. For an example of a brackish pool in a saltmarsh, see http://www.sciencephoto.com/media/
175707/view The importance of brackish pools as habitat for young dragonflies, called nymphs, has long been observed by naturalists, as noted by Raymond Osburn (The American Naturalist,1906 http://www.jstor.org/pss/2455367) Catling’s research has shown, a century later, that dragonflies do in fact utilize saltmarshes, which contain an abundance of estuarine and marine life.  Either dragonflies have evolved to move into saltmarshes or earlier observations by naturalists have left that distinction out of literature.

One contemporary naturalist photographed a Tawny Pennant (Brachymesia herbida) in a saltmarsh in the Bosa Chica tract of a National Wildlife Refuge in Brownsville, TXhttp://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/Brachyherb.jpg Here’s a dragonfly in a saltmarsh of Daufin Island, AL http://www.flickr.com/photos/littoraria/3639808921/ But a simple Google Images search will reveal that it is rare to find photos of adult dragonflies in saltmarshes. This may be due in part to the challenges of wildlife photography, especially with respect to capturing a fast-moving target, such as a dragonfly, on film. The best advice from our own Compleat Wetlander’s nature photographer, Jeanne Christie: “Wait for the wildlife to come toyou.”

Bonus activity for kids: How to draw a dragonfly. http://www.how-to-draw-cartoons-online.com/dragonfly-drawings.html

Updated April 2013: Dragonflies Drive Dedicated Fans to Refuges
http://www.fws.gov/news/blog/index.cfm/2013/4/2/Dragonflies-Drive-Dedicated-Fans-to-Refuges