Essential Wetland Reading

Government Pamphlets

Wetlands in Canada: A Valuable Resource. This pamphlet is available from Environment Canada. It is Fact Sheet 86-4 from their Lands Directorate in Ottawa, K1A 0E7. From the same source you might want to ask for Working Paper 26, Land Use Change on Wetlands in Southern Canada, or Working Paper 34, Land Use Change on Wetlands in the Southwestern Fraser Lowland.

The Canadian Wildlife Service has produced a good pamphlet on wetlands, simply called Wetlands, and if you can’t obtain it from a local office of CWS or Environment Canada, you could write the CWS Distribution Section in Ottawa, ON, K1A 0E7.

Videotapes

Two reasonable videos are available locally. The Friends of Boundary Bay have produced a 23 minute video called Wondrous Wetlands. This tape is designed for classroom use, and raises many questions which are left unanswered in an effort to stimulate discussion. It can be ordered by sending $16.00 to FOBB at PO Box 1441, Stn. A, Delta, BC, V4M 3Y8.

Another tape is available from the Washington State Department of Ecology in Olympia. It has three separate wetland videos compiled onto one tape, including Bill Nye the Science Guy on Wetlands. This is a good resource for community groups or schools. Address: PO Box 47600, Olympia, WA, 98504-7600.

Books

Patrick Dugan’s Wetlands in Danger, A World Conservation Atlas (1993), is a coffee-table book with good photographs and a global focus. Published by Oxford University Press, New York, NY.

Edward Maltby’s Waterlogged Wealth (1986) is a great introduction to wetlands. Published by Earthscan, 1717 Massachusetts Avenue, Washington, DC 20036.

Mitsch and Gosselink’s Wetlands came out in a new edition in 1993. This is a standard wetlands text. Six hundred pages with fifty pages of bibliography. Recommended, but note that it focuses on US wetlands, assumes some science background, and that it costs around $80.00. Published by Van Nostrand Reinhold.

The Audubon Society Nature Guide on Wetlands by William Niering and a team of associates. The emphasis here is on species and identification in US wetlands. Prefaced by a brief introduction to wetlands. At $25.00 it is valuable if identification of species is what you want.

Wetlands of Canada was published by the federal Minister of Supply and Services in 1988. Authored by the National Wetlands Working Group, it is the main source for information about Canadian wetlands, but note that only twenty pages out of four hundred are devoted to wetlands generally: the rest of the book is broken up geographically. BC’s Pacific Coast wetlands are given a chapter, but aside from boreal wetlands, the rest of BC (which is more than half the province) is not discussed specifically.

Wetland Protection Guide is similar to the one you are holding, but focusing on Washington State. Distributed by the Washington Wetlands Network at 8050 — 35th Avenue N.E. Seattle, WA. 98115. Call or fax them to check on cost. Tel: 1 206 524-4570 or fax: 1 206 528-7779.