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1.  What do you think lives in the fresh water marsh here at Windsor Castle Park?

Bulrushes and cattails are often found at the edges of a marsh. There are very few trees in freshwater marshes. Animals like mink, raccoons, opossums, muskrats, beavers, frogs, turtles and lots of species of birds and insects are common in marsh lands.

2.  What is the value of the tidal freshwater marsh for its inhabitants?

The abundant insects of freshwater tidal marshes provide food for birds such as wrens and blackbirds.  Freshwater tidal marshes can provide spawning grounds for fish such as shad and herring.

3.  Some fish are anadromous. Can you figure out the meaning of the word, based on its Greek origins: ana- means up and -dromos means running.

Anadromous fish hatch in freshwater, but migrate and live most of their lives in the ocean. They return upstream to freshwater rivers, streams, and marshes to spawn.  Some examples in Virginia are shad, striped bass, and sturgeon. A catadromous fish does the opposite - lives in fresh water and enters salt water to spawn. Most of the eels are catadromous.

4.  One particular bird is seen in the fresh water marsh, and it is not normally seen in the salt water marsh.  Do you know what it is and what it looks like?

Red-winged Blackbird.  It is one of the most abundant birds across North America, and one of the most boldly colored.  The Red-winged Blackbird is a familiar sight atop cattails, along soggy roadsides, and on telephone wires. Glossy-black males have scarlet-and-yellow shoulder patches they can puff up or hide depending on how confident they feel.  Females are a subdued, streaky brown, almost like a large, dark sparrow. ​

5.  Freshwater marshes are usually low-lying, open areas located near creeks, streams, rivers and lakes, where water flows into the marsh. Marshes are especially common at the mouths of rivers.  What is the water level in most fresh water marshes?

The water level in freshwater marshes usually ranges from 1 to 6 feet deep for most of the year. 

6.  There is one huge fresh water marsh that is the biggest in the United States. What is its name and in what state would you find it?

The Florida Everglades is the single largest fresh water marsh system in the United States, occupying almost 10,000 square kilometers, or 3,861 square miles. 

7.  Compare what plants and birds you see in the fresh water marsh with what is seen in the salt water marsh.  Are there any obvious differences? 

Cattails, phragmites, some wild rice, lizard’s tail, arum plants and song birds are the common plants and birds seen further upstream in the wooded sections of the park. The salt water marsh has a variety of salt marsh cord grasses primarily, along with herons, egrets, rails, and marsh wrens.

8.  Land sinking is known as subsidence.  Declining ground water levels add to subsidence in some areas of eastern Virginia. What local industries might draw significant amounts of water from underground aquifers and affect subsidence? 

Paper mills like that in Franklin, municipalities, industry, and large agriculture users.

9.  How could subsidence impact the marshes at WCP?

As the ground sinks, the marsh ground level will also sink, possibly causing this area to be submerged permanently and no longer able to function as a marsh.

10.  Many people think of global warming and climate change as synonyms, but scientists prefer to use “climate change” when describing the complex shifts now affecting our planet’s weather and climate systems. Rising seas is one of those climate change effects.  How could this affect the marshes at WCP?

As sea levels rise, higher tides could convert the fresh water marsh to a salt water marsh and the creek water levels could cause flooding in the low lying areas surrounding the park.