Ch. 3— Wetland Values and the Importance of Wetlands to Man • 57 



Table 6.— Endangered Wetland Species on the Federal 

 Endangered and Threatened Species List 



Species (including subspecies, 

 Range groups of similar species, and genera) 



Alaska, Northwest California Aleutian Canada goose 



California Saltmarsh harvest mouse 



California clapper rail 

 Light-footed clapper rail 

 San Francisco garter snake 

 Desert slender salamander 

 Santa Cruz long-toed salamander 

 Delta green ground beetle 

 Truckee barberry 

 San Diego mesa mint 

 Crampton's Orcutt grass 

 Saltmarsh bird's beak (a snapdragon) 



California, Arizona Yuma clapper rail 



Carolinas to Texas, California Brown pelican 



Rocky Mountains east to Carolinas Whooping crane 



Iowa Iowa pleistocene snail 



Southeast American alligator 



Houston toad 



Pine barrens tree frog 



Carolinas Bunched arrowhead 



Florida Everglades kite 



Cape Sable seaside sparrow 

 Dusky seaside sparrow 

 American crocodile 

 Atlantic saltmarsh snake 



Appalachians Chittenango ovate amber snail 



Massachusetts Plymouth red-bellied turtle 



Maine Furbish lousewort 



Hawaii Hawaiian coot 



Hawaiian duck 

 Laysan duck 

 Hawaiian gallinule 

 Hawaiian stilt 



Guam, Marianas Islands Marianas mallard 



SOURCE: Office of Technology Assessment, 



game managers identified the game and fur animals 

 that use wetlands in their States (table 7). A large 

 number of nongame species were found to use wet- 

 lands. 



Food Chain Support 



The infusion of nutrients that comes with spring 

 flooding, combined with the nutrients already 

 stored in wedand soils, results in wedand plant pro- 



ductivity that often is significantly higher than the 

 productivity of adjacent open-water or upland 

 areas. For instance, the fertility of flood plains, 

 resulting from the annual deposits of enriched sedi- 

 ment carried by spring floods, is widely recognized. 

 Similarly, coastal salt marshes and certain types of 

 inland freshwater wetlands that receive a regular 

 supply of nutrients achieve some of the highest rates 

 of plant productivity of any natural ecosystem. 



