I had read a lot about wetlands, heard a lot about it too but it compared to nothing until I got to see one by myself. After being in one, I felt my text book knowledge was huge injustice to real functions of a wetlands, not that I didn’t knew but I simply couldn’t have visualized. Last Friday one of my colleagues invited me to join them for a field trip to Atchafalaya Basin; they were planning to retrieve data from their water level recorder. I had a GIS project going for the same location, so I felt having exposure to ground condition will further enhance my analysis capabilities.

Atchafalaya Basin is located in central Louisiana, and is a combination of wetlands and river delta, where Atchafalaya River drains to the Gulf of Mexico. Historically Mississippi River followed the present course of Atchafalya River to the Gulf of Mexico. After the Great Flood of 1927 Congress has mandated that 30% of Mississippi River and Red River (tributary of Mississippi) has to flow through Atchafalaya (using River Control System).

We boarded a 17 foot whaler and setoff in Atchafalya River (oh ya, we did put on chest waders). I had never seen such diversity of birds in my life, I could see gators basking in sun, snakes moving in the water, and mature bottomland hardwood forest (Atchafalaya is the largest bottomland hardwood forest swamp in USA).

When the water in the main channel gets higher, the water flows into back swamps and back lake, and when the main channel recesses the water flows back to the main channel (If you click my picture to enlarge, you can see flood marks on the trees). In the process the sediments are retained, and one could visually see the difference in the color of main channel (turbid) Vs the sediment free water coming out from back swamps and back lake (dark, due to tanning by leaves). Besides wildlife diversity and sediment retention, wetlands have other importances too: carbon sequestration and denitrification, one of the major causes of Hypoxia in Gulf of Mexico.

Earlier I used to dream of clear waters, but now I won’t mind water covered with Duckweed complimented by wildlife diversity and serene environment. I am unaware of wetlands in Nepal, but judging by my experience in Atchafalya, we can open doors towards new tourism venture if we can provide boats and accommodation facilities to Ornithologist and bird lovers.