"The love of wilderness is more than a hunger for what is always beyond reach. It is also an expression of loyalty to the earth which bore us and sustains us, the only home we shall ever know, the only paradise we ever need--if only we had the eyes to see." (Edward Abbey 20th Century American naturalist)

The marine coastal wetland system is a part of that wilderness we abuse all too often. It consists of open ocean and its associated coastline of sandy beaches, intertidal beaches, rocky shoreline and tidal flats. Three catagories of barriers makeup the restraints holding back the ocean from swallowing the shoreline--off shore bars the primary coastal barrier, beaches the secondary coastal barrier, and dunes the final coastal barrier. Beyond the dunes barrier islands, beaches, marshlands, estuaries, river corridors, and maritime forests form a vital ecological system that supports countless species of plants and animal life. Besides coral reefs and hard bottom areas off shore, the region has more than three hundred estuaries containing seventeen million acres of marsh.

Georgia's coast formed during the Great Ice Age, characterized by alternating periods of warm and cold, causing vast continental icesheets to form in the northern hemisphere. The icesheets expanded and contracted in response to the fluctuating temperatures. They took a large volume of water from the oceans, causing the world's sea level to be lowered by as much as a hundred meters. In Georgia the land extended as far as fifty miles east of the present shoreline. Although Georgia was never glaciated, the fluctuating sea level affected it. Each successive shoreline was left at a lower elevation by the next lower stand of the sea. One sees these ridges as a series of old shorelines (barrier islands) alternating with old marshes (now pine flat woods), and old tidal creeks (now river swamps). Beach and dune systems on today's barrier islands, formed for several thousand years, continues to change constantly.

Where the turf meets the surf you have a coastal wetland whereas an area reaching six feet deep is classified as deep water habitat. Coastal wetlands naturally maintains themselves. During calm weather, the wave action moves sand in to the beach and dune area from the off shore bars. The force from a storm returns that sand to the bars. Its wave energy is broken up before doing damage to any property because sand sharing (beaches, dunes, off shore sand bars) protects the coastal islands from the force of storm winds and waves. The wetlands act as a buffer protecting the upland areas from that force. beyond the dunes.

The wetlands are the most vibrant, productive ecosystems found in nature, as well as the most vulnerable. They make up the most diverse ecosystem on our planet. This ecosystem creates ecotones, areas where mixing or blending of two or more different habitats occurs. It provides a greater choice in living conditions for a more diverse community of wildlife than found in any one of the individual component habitats. Thirty five percent of endangered species such as alligators, red & gray wolves, black footed farrets, and grissly bears, depend upon or inhabit the wetlands. They provide homes for three quarters of North America's bird population, where bountiful food supplies, shallow waters, and relative freedom from predators allow them to breed, feed, rest or nest. The marshland gives rise to an essential life support system for sea life. Georgia's coastal waters support large populations of fish and shellfish. Its wetlands export food into the nearshore waters of the ocean to nourish the marine species that never enter the marshes or estuaries. Other marine life spends their earliest days in the marshes.

Marshes act as homes or feeding grounds for many forms of ocean life. The barrier islands shelter these marshes from the wind and waves. Where sea and fresh water mix produce varying levels of salinity so receiving waters support marine life. Fish and shellfish harvests require the protection of the wetlands for spawning, feeding, and cover from predators during part or all of their life cycles. Many of these organisms cannot live either in purely fresh water or water as salty as the ocean, making proper balance in salinity levels critical for their survival. Every day a battle is waged to protect the health and productivity of coastal habitats such as marshes, estuaries, reefs and banks. No other coastal environment has been better protected or more carefully preserved.

In natural systems, the broad wetlands and marshes slow down and diffuse the influx of fresh water. They have time to assimilate the fresh water without rapid and drastic fluctuations in its quality. They must contain enough water to completely saturate or cover the soil at least two weeks during the growing season. The water table must remain within twelve to sixteen inches below the surface of the soil. Then it favors the growth and regeneration of hydrophytic or water loving vegetation.

Why are these marshes so important to our coast? As tools for education and research, professionals find these regions resourceful. The community's economy looks to the wetlands for timber and food such as its cranberry production. It also provides archeological value, as well as open space and aesthetic value. Though important, these are the smaller issues.

On a broader scale, the wetlands provide a flood storage, sediment control, a water supply and purification system, and become useful as a barrier to waves and erosion. They act as storm buffers to reduce peak rates of runoff because they provide abundant retention storage. Following heavy rains or flooding, storm waters will spread over a large area of generally flat land. The presence of porous organic soils increases the tendency to hold and restrict the flow of storm water from the wetland. During winter and spring when evapotranspiration is low and water tables high, a larger portion of rainfall will be rejected. This causes higher rates of runoff then during the growing season when the water table falls and becomes saturated only after heavy rains.

One of most important roles played by marshes is their tertiary treatment facility for mineral nutrients. Waters far from land where nutriants generally can't reach them are not as productive as those along the coast. Nearly three quarters of all salt water fish sought by fishermen, both commercial and sports, depend on these coastal marshes. They serve as a nursery ground for juvenile fish and shellfish, producing more food and energy than any other estuarine zone on the eastern seaboard. Grass and sediments act as both a sink and a pump. Large amounts of nutrients come into the estuaries from land, rivers and the sea, concentrating in marshes and bays along the coast. Once in the marshlands nutrients quickly store, becoming available to other organisms.

This marshy region possesses three essential criteria: has hydric soil, an area supporting plants,and one that adapts to or requires wet conditions. Hydric soil is soil saturated, flooded, or ponded long enough, while flourishing, to develop conditions without oxygen. Bacteria and fungi feed on dead or decaying plants and animals converting them into natural fertilizer. Like the green plants in coastal lands beyond the marshes, microscopic marine plants called phytoplankton capture energy from the sun through the process of photosynthesis and use it to bind water and carbon dioxide together in packets of food for marine life. These tiny plants literally make the sun's energy available to marine life from the smallest shrimp to the great blue whale. It becomes a chain--shrimp eat phytoplankton and are themselves eaten by squid, squid in turn become food for dolphins and so forth. Twice a day the tide sweeps in, it brings with it ocean fish and microscopic marine life into feed. As water recedes it carries back nutrients as well as plankton and even animals which become part of the off shore food chain.

The wetlands' less obvious importance is maintaining a high quality of water in the aquatic environment. By temporarily holding back nutrients, wastes, and sediment from runoff, this terrain gives these pollutants a chance to settle or decompose into less harmful forms before reaching the open seas. When heavy rains occur, a wetland's stem and root system serves to slow the velocity of floodwaters. This process reduces water turbidity and reopens navigational channels and streams. It has a "thirsty sponge" effect which permits standing flood waters to percolate through the soil, purifying and recharging ground water supplies. Ground water is the main source of fresh water in coastal Georgia. The wetlands convert sunlight into food at remarkable rates, filtering pollutants from waters that flow through them providing clean water supplies for lakes, streams and underground water aquifers.

A well drilled in the aquifer or water yielding rock, causes pressure which generates the water to flow above the surface of the ground. The increased usage of ground water has caused the pressure within the aquifer to decrease. This condition not only results in a lowering of the water level, but also can cause a problem of saltwater intrusion. Saline water either from the ocean or in some cases from a deep saline water zone beneath the aquifer forces its way into the fresh water, contaminating it for human and industrial use. Continued concentrated use of ground water on the coast will result in increased salt water intrusion.

Wetland margins naturally shift as rainfall amounts vary from season to season and year to year and as land elevations gradually subside and storms alter the terrain. During periods of rain, island sloughs collect water and provide breeding grounds for aquatic life such as frogs, insects, and fish. Fish enter from the ocean to breed in enormous numbers providing an important food supply for island wildlife. Intruding terrestrial plants are drowned, reestablishing water system. During dry periods, water levels fall, frogs and fish become concentrated, thereby providing an essential food source for birds. The ocean and slough exchange nutrients, maintaining these sloughs as highly productive systems. Certain sloughs maintain open water conditions by becoming inundated with salt water making changes in their salidity and killing the vegetation. The decomposition of this accumulated organic matter accelerates, recycling important nutrients to the island ecosystem as the slough bottom is cleaned and lowered.

One hundred sixteen million acres of this country's original two hundred million acres of wetlands in the lower forty eight states have been destroyed. Tens of thousands of acres of coastal wetlands are being lost annually. This enormous loss and degradation has been brought about both by human activities and natural phenomena. Over half of these productive areas have already been lost, yet we continue to destroy thousands of acres annually.

Georgia has one of the most extensive and productive marshland systems in the United States. Its saltmarshes are the fabric knitting together the mainland with its barrier islands. Continued loss of coastal wetlands and degradation of coastal waters reflect thousands of decisions to proceed with its habitat, often destroying human activities. Effects of that include reducing fishing by commercial and sports people and slowing down the dwindling wildlife populations.

Problems persist and continually emerge. Global warming results in ocean expansion and the sea-level rising posing a threat to coastal marshes, coral reefs, and other coastal habitats whose plant and animal communities may not be able to adapt to rapidly changing conditions. Flooding, droughts, over grazing by wildlife, erosion, subsidence, sea level rise and hurricanes pose the natural threats to wetland integrity. The majority of wetland losses are the direct results of drainage for crops and timber production. Agriculture contributes to more than two percent of salt water wetland losses. About twenty two percent has been converted to urban use and fifty six percent to port development. Due to the human population explosion with its needs, habitat loss and degradation have caused serious reductions in the fish and shellfish populations.

Population explosion needs along the coast will continue to threaten these wetlands without strict guidelines. Industrial, agricultural, navigational and urban developments create changes to the boundaries. Draining, diking, dredging and filling for navigational, agricultural and industrial water reservoir, and urban development cause significant degradation and destruction of wetlands. We damage or destroy productive coastal habitats by filling or dredging marshes to build waterfront houses, contaminating waters with toxic substances, polluting with excessive nutrients such as agricultural and home fertilizers and domestic sewage, and construction of coastal river dams. Agricultural activities result in soil, pesticide, fertilizer residue and other pollutants being carried into streams during rain storms and then out to coastal waters. This causes undesirable blooms of algae which, though normally beneficial, in excess screen sunlight from other marine plants that are depended upon by fish and shellfish. Harmful materials from pleasure boats, ships, manufacturing facilities, and sewage treatment plants still affect our waterway environment, even pollutants from the air can settle in the water. In order to make the waters safe, we must learn the effects of pollution and make a commitment to pollution prevention in our everyday lives.

If we are to resolve the inevitable conflict between developmental and conservational interests, we must begin to carefully and honestly evaluate what is at stake. A cooperative effort among governmental agencies, business groups, and professional conservationists is needed to restore, protect, and enhance those areas harmed by both natural phenomena and human interference.

The Anglo-American legal system, under British common law, held the tidal marsh in trust for all people for almost four hundred years. This trust considers all permit applications received for any development or alterations proposed for marshes or sand sharing systems. Georgia was among the first states in the nation to take such steps to protect the marshes from development and other encroachments. It established two laws which conserve the fragile coastal environment the Coastal Marshlands Protection Act of 1970 and the Shore Assistance Act of 1979.

The Coastal Marshlands Protection Act, amended in 1992, recognizes the marshlands as vital resources that provide habitat for many species of marine life and wildlife, food for their survival, a nursery area fish and shellfish, a natural buffer against flooding and erosion, and a filter to help control and disseminate pollution. It evaluates proposed projects which might affect these areas and grants or denies permits for projects based on their environmental impacts and the public interests.

Georgia's Department of Natural Resources (DNR) conducts as many as one thousand site inspections each year to determine jurisdiction lines, collect information, advise applicants, and investigate violations. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) protects, restores, and maintains the Nation's coastal and marine waters to protect human health and sustain marine living resources. It takes action to further reduce pollution of these waters and limit the effects of increasing coastal population. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) habitat conservation program seeks to conserve the habitat upon which our marine life depends. The Wetlands Protection Hotline of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency assists both the public and the regulated community with understanding the regulations and programs developed in response to the Clean Water Act and other federal laws that protect wetlands.

The wetlands are easy targets for abuse and destruction as most people are unaware of the wetlands' value. Poor definition hinders the efforts produced so far. Maps, lack of information regarding fragile ecosystem, and constant changes to government laws often weaken the protection to the wetlands. Individuals must guard their wetlands and challenge efforts to destroy them, educate their communities on the importance of protecting wetlands, and register their concerns with Congress and the agencies responsible for wetlands protection. We risk losing both the quality and the quantity of living marine resources which many of us depend upon for livelihoods.