Wetland Biomes: Essential and Endangered

Iron Age northern Europeans occasionally sacrificed people and tossed them into bogs to appease the bog gods, but their latter-day descendants in America viewed wetlands as considerably less important. Fortunately, that attitude is slowly changing: we realize now that wetlands play a key role in the environment (and we no longer sacrifice humans to the bog gods). Combining lovely original videography along with stock film footage and news clips, Wetland Biomes presents a concise overview of swamps, salt and freshwater marshes, and bogs, and discusses the ecological issues facing these "essential" and "endangered" environments. Using specific examples from Florida, the tape features a class of 8th graders on a field trip at Fakahatchee Strand, followed by a discussion of mangrove swamps, and a look at the ecological problems facing the Everglades. Although the restoration of the Kissimmee River following its disastrous channelization is not mentioned, the video does point out wetlands' role in reducing flooding, using the great Upper Mississippi River floods of 1993 as an example. Highly recommended. Aud: I, J, H. (R. Reagan)