Jackson Bottoms Wetland Preserve

Hello World!

   Today I want to tell you about my trip to Jackson Bottoms Wetland Preserve.

Jackson Bottoms Sign

You might think of a wetland as a muddy water filled place, but it is actually giant home to many land creatures as well. There are many types of wetlands but the three main ones are: bogs, swamps and marshes.
Jackson Bottoms has all of those types including the King Fisher Marsh, Wapato Swamp and the rest of the land has ground water which makes it a bog.

Picture of a swamp

   I went there with my class field trip and my goal was to gather information on what a wetland is, what creatures live there and how it is helpful to our environment. When I reached there, there was a community  service project where we were going to plant trees. We learned about the five traits a living thing needs. I planted my tree with food, water, space, shelter and a habitat. First I was given a hole to plant our tree in. That creates a space and a habitat for the tree. Next we put soil into the hole so the tree would be to the ground level. Then we put some fertilizer and Zibo for food. Then we put two buckets of water on the tree because we learned that trees are very thirsty when they are in new soil. The shelter was created because this is a caution area so people and animals are not allowed here. This helped our environment by providing oxygen.

Bald eagle nest at Jackson Bottoms

   Our next activity was to look at animals. We got binoculars and I was looking for different types of animals. We had to be quite so animals would not get scared. I saw a juvenile bald eagle, some swallows, a red tailed hawk and some nutria. This was really fun. After that we were instructed to visit the museum. At the museum we saw some cool creatures and other wildlife signs. I saw a bald eagle nest, a coyote, a juvenile bald eagle and some raccoon. In the museum I took notes on all the amazing information there.

   The Jackson Bottoms Wetland Preserve is a very interesting place. I learned a lot about fauna (animals) and flora (plants). I learned about what wetlands are, how they form and how they help our community. I think everybody should visit Jackson Bottoms.

Rishab Won  ( c:))