Instructor: Paul Weihe
Text: Wetlands, second ed. 1993. William J. Mitsch and James G. Gosselink. Van Nostrand Reinhold, NY. 722 p.
NOTE: we also used readings from jounals/magazines (Wetlands, Aquatic Botany, Audubon, and Environmental Concern's newsletter) and postings to ELI-WETLANDS regarding a court decision in New Hampshire.

Introduction: Wetlands are of great interest to many scientists and laypersons alike. Featuring unique flora, fauna, microbes, and ecological processes, wetlands have been of interest to naturalists and ecologists. Historically portrayed as "dismal," they have also of late been valued as highly productive systems providing goods and services which humans value.

Wetlands are an excellent case study in the interaction between society and the environment. While the Federal government once encouraged "development" of wetlands, now they are afforded legal protection (yes, one can be sent to prison for destroying a wetland). Determining wetland boundaries ("delineation") and wetland design/construction are big business.

Tentative Schedule:
NOTE: this schedule was modified...Chapters 8, 11-14, and 18 were only skimmed over (lack of time). I found we needed more time to cover biogeochemistry and ecology, since some students had little background on those topics.

Week of	Topic	Text Chapter
8/25	Introduction; the wetlands business	1
9/1	Definitions	2
9/8	Wetland types & resources	3
9/15	Exam 1; Hydrology	4
9/22	Biogeochemistry	5
9/29	Biological adaptations; Field Trip	6
10/6	Wetland ecosystem development	7
10/13	Exam 2; Tidal salt Marshes	8
10/20	Freshwater marshes	11
10/27	Peatlands/bogs	12
11/3	Southern swamps	13
11/10	Riparian wetlands; Exam 3	14
11/17	Management & protection	16
11/24	Thanksgiving week (no classes)	--
12/1	Wetland creation & restoration	17
12/8	Classification & inventory	18
12/15	Final Exam	--

Laboratory exercises are essential to the course. Students will develop skills in assessing and measuring the structure and function of wetland ecosystems; visit several local wetlands (natural and created), and examine the unique flora and fauna of these systems. Analysis in hydrology (including water quality), mapping/morphometry determination, soils analysis, and biotic surveys will be made in several wetlands. Visit the Wetlands lab page for more information.

Class Project: Students will work in teams to evaluate the feasability of creating a wetland in a portion of the pond adjacent to the Science Center building. The pond has eutrophication and sediment loading problems which might be solved by a wetland cell; a created wetland would also be another ecosystem available for study by science classes. However, any such project would be limited by space and available funding, and would have to be aesthetically pleasing to the campus community.

Extended Field Trip: The class will take a trip during the Forest Festival weekend break (October 2-5, 1997) to visit wetlands and other areas of interest in Maryland. We will meet with a representative of Environmental Concern, Inc., a leading non-profit NGO concerned with wetland resources.
The trip will feature stops at the following sites (tentative list):

Antietam National Battlefield --- site of the battle which was the bloodiest day of the Civil War (8,000 casualties by 10 AM). We will take a break on our long drive; and in the tradition of a Liberal Arts college, we will learn about and reflect on the activity at Antietam during the battle.
Assateague State Park --- only oceanside state park in MD. Home to salt marshes and wild ponies. Weather permitting, we will camp on this barrier island and eat s'mores by the sea.
Pocomoke State Forest --- One of the most northern of cypress (Taxodium distichum) swamps.
King's Creek Marsh --- Owned by The Nature Conservancy, this area is an extensive brackish marsh with a long boardwalk and a wonderful array of plants.
Seth State Forest --- Has a freshwater marsh, probably the most common type of wetland in the U.S.

Term Paper: Students will be required to submit a review of a topic relating to this course. The student may choose any suitable topic, but must consult with Dr. Weihe prior to writing the paper. Among the resources at hand for preparing the paper is a Web page discussing bibliographic searching and information sources.

Exams and Grading: Exams will consist of both objective m/c and matching, and subjective short-answer questions. Concepts learned in lab are "fair game", although I will not ask for minute detail on procedures or results.

The grade for the course will be based on 700 pts., distributed as follows:

Exams---3@100, Final @ 150	450 pts.
Quizzes, assignments, lab	200 pts.
Project	50 pts.
Term Paper	50 pts.
Total	750 pts.

Links & Information Resources

In addition to your text and class handouts, you have a variety of reference materials available in the Booth library on campus and in my personal library. You may also wish to visit the bibliographic searching and information sources Web page which has instructions and links for searching several powerful databases. You can locate relevant books and journal citations, and search the WVU Libraries on-line catalog to see if the materials are in Morgantown (if we don't have them on campus).