Many wetlands are valuable for -~ 
(4) Curbing or preventing erosion on watersheds, stream 
banks, seacoasts, and elsewhere. 
(5) Producing timber. 
(6) Serving as firebreaks in forested regions. 
(7) Producing cultivated crops such as rice, cranberries, 
reed canary-grass, and basket willows. 
(8) Producing wild crops such as pasture, marsh hay, wild- 
rice, blueberries, cranberries, duckpotatoes, sphagnum 
moss, and cattails. 
WILDLIFE UTILITY OF WETLANDS 
The wilclife value of different wetlands varies greatly. Also, 
their capacity for improvement, following physical developments and planned 
management, involves wide variation. Consequently, as in appraising land 
for agricultural or other purposes, consideration should be given not 
only to present utility but also to potentialities. 
Improvement possibilities have been demonstrated repeatedly in 
meadows, marshes, and ponds. Many of these wet areas have been made more 
attractive to waterfowl by means of low-cost construction enabling effec- 
tive manipulation of water supplies. Swamps and bogs, on the other hand, 
generally have limited prospect for improvement, mainly because of diffi- 
culties in managing their water supplies satisfactorily and because of 
costs involved if woody growths are removed. The degree to which any 
particular wetland area can be made more productive for wildlife depends 
largely on local factors (water supply, terrain, soil, flora, fauna, 
etc.) which can be appraised best. locally. 
Wildlife values of wetlands can be denoted in several ways: 
by expressions of existing wildlife populations (e.g. duck-days, numbers 
of muskrats, or numbers of other animals present); by quality and quantity 
of food and cover (at times, these can be appraised when wildlife popula- 
tions cannot); or by estimated potentialities, dependent on physical 
improvements. 
Principal forms of animal life that add value to wetlands are 
ducks, geese, and other waterfowl, rails and other marshbirds, shorebirds, 
and songbirds; muskrats, beaver, mink, raccoon, otter, and nutria; fish, 
shellfish, turtles, alligators, and frogs. Seasonally or locally, moose, 
deer, bear, and some upland gamebirds make considerable use of wetlands. 
