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Summary

Marches, swamps, bogs - whatever you want to call them, wetlands get little respect. But on closer examination, those places are teeming with life. Canada holds nearly a quarter of all the world's wetlands. But they are disappearing at an alarming rate. So when even one wetland area is spared, it's cause for celebration. That's why so many people are celebrating Muriel's Marsh.

Transcript of Video

Jill Deacon
Marshes, swamps, bogs, whatever you want to call them, wetlands get little respect. But look closer, those places are teeming with life. In fact, they're one of the few most diverse life support systems in the world. Canada holds nearly a quarter of all the world's wetlands, but they are disappearing at an alarming rate. In the past 200 years, we've drained or filled 15 percent of our wetlands. So when even one wetland area is spared, it's a cause for celebration. That's why so many people are celebrating Muriel's Marsh.

Muriel Braham
Hi

Nancy Patterson
Hi Muriel.

Muriel Braham
How are you Nancy?

Nancy Patterson
Just fine, how are you?

Muriel Braham
Fine.

Jay Ingram
Muriel Braham has never been one to shy away from adventure, and at the age of 84, this is her latest; the Lone Pine Marsh Sanctuary.

Muriel Braham
Well we could take a walk down. Have you seen anything at all?

Nancy Patterson
I heard some geese. We should probably head down to the marsh, and maybe we'll see something there.

Muriel Braham
Let's do that.

Nancy Patterson
Okay.

Muriel Braham
Okay. It's kind of windy.

Nancy Patterson
So I see we've done some planting over here, Muriel.

Muriel Braham
Yes. Some volunteers came one day and planted their oak trees.

Jay Ingram
Muriel loves to welcome visitors to the marsh. Today it's Environment Canada wetlands biologist Nancy Patterson. Eight years after she first saw the land, Muriel is still learning about the treasures that it holds.

Muriel Braham
I haven't been out here as much as I would like to be, but it... when I do come, I just love it because you never know what you're going to see. I don't know the names of many of the things, all the same I can still enjoy it.

Jay Ingram
Even in early spring, with signs of new growth just starting to peek through the underbrush, and the buds fresh on the trees, the Lone Pine Marsh is a noisy place.

Nancy Patterson
Now this is a pond that was created by Ducks Unlimited, isn't it?

Muriel Braham
That's right.

Nancy Patterson
When they put the water level control structure in ponds like this, they can raise and lower the water levels to expose the mud, especially along the edges. When they lower the water level, the mud and seeds and oxygen are exposed, and that promotes vigorous growth.

Jay Ingram
Muriel discovered the area back in 1991, and it was love at first sight.

Muriel Braham
I was coming down the road, and all of a sudden I said to myself in the car, I'm just about going to buy this thing, I'll bet. I just had that feeling about it. And so then I saw it, and that very day I asked if I could put an offer on it.

Jay Ingram
She bought it with plans to build a house. A few months later, she bought the adjoining property, giving her 35 hectares of prime wetlands. And by that time, she knew she would never live here.

Muriel Braham
I envisioned a place that would be here for our children's children, and that I would leave it to posterity. Because the idea also came to me that I would form a corporation and get non-profit status, and that was the road I wanted to take. And in doing that, I was giving it away to the public. So I always tell people they own it. And they do.

Jay Ingram
The sanctuary was born.

Nancy Patterson
If you look for the... water meets the vegetation, we call that edge. And in areas like this, the more edge the greater diversity of habitat for wildlife. And so in sites like this, where there's a lot of open water mixed in with different types of vegetation, and then there's edge between the cattails that you'll see here in the foreground and in shrubs, that's really good habitat for wildlife too.

Jay Ingram
And that means plenty of frogs and turtles, birds, beavers, and fish. The Friends of the Lone Pine Marsh now manage the area. They've just received an environmental study of the site. It identifies a tremendous array of fauna and flora; nearly 300 species of plants, more than 80 species of birds, not to mention the mammals, reptiles, amphibians and insects that spend time here.

Not surprising, Environment Canada researchers have looked at the list of endangered wildlife for Ontario and found a third of the species there are wetland-dependent. They suspect that nationally, the figure is higher. Wetlands are incredibly fertile sites.

Nancy Patterson
Wetlands are one of the most biodiverse ecosystems in the world. In terms of primary productivity they can be three times as productive as agricultural fields, which is... people just have no concept of that idea.

Jay Ingram
Or of the worth of a wetland. The marsh catches and stores spring runoff. That reduces flood damage, but it's also able to release water later during dry periods in the growing season. And wetlands are nature's own water filtration plants.

Nancy Patterson
As water passes through this system of roots and stems and all kinds of stuff, it's slowed down, and sediments and associated contaminants that are in the water drop out of suspension and are locked up in the sediment basin of the marsh itself. Thus at the end of passing through a wetland, the water is cleaner.

Jay Ingram
The Friends of the Lone Pine Marsh don't have many plans for managing the site at present. They do plan to leave it to grow on its own. But first they want to buy the 18-hectare buffer zone that surrounds the property, to protect the wetland further. They're still $25,000 shy of the goal. Again, Muriel is leading the charge; she sells homemade jam by the boxful. All the proceeds go to the marsh.

And she sells nuts, packages of heart nuts. They're already sprouting, ready for the garden. With a little care, they'll grow into large trees and produce a type of walnut. Muriel has heart nut trees in her own garden. Every dollar adds up. There are few incentives to encourage landowners to protect wetlands. Often the land is simply more valuable if it's sold to a developer.

And that's why Muriel's example is so rare. Though she does get a tax break, that's not why she chose to protect the land. In the end, it's really the personal satisfaction that counts. That's enough for Muriel.

Muriel Braham
It is amazing, yeah. And I'm terribly, terribly pleased. It'll be a real legacy... you know. It'll be probably the most important thing I've done in my life, except for my children.

Jill Deacon
Tonight's edition of Earth Tones was produced with the help of Environment Canada.