How “Natural” are inland wetlands? an example from the trail wood audubon sanctuary in Connecticut,USA |
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Authors: | Robert M Thorson Sandra L Harris |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Geology & Geophysics, University of Connecticut (U-45), 345 Mansfield Road, 06269 Storrs, Connecticut, USA |
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Abstract: | We examined the geology of a small inland wetland in Hampton, Connecticut to determine its postglacial history and to assess
the severity of human impact at this remote wooded site. Using stratigraphic evidence, we dernonstrate that the present wetland
was created when sediment pollution from a 19th-century railroad filled a preexisting artificial reservoir, and that the prehistoric
wetland was a narrow drainage swale along Hampton Brook. This same, severely impacted wetland was interpreted by the Pulitzer
Prize-winning naturalist Edwin Way Teale as a beautiful wilderness area of particular interest. These conflicting perceptions
indicate that artificial wetlands can be naturally mitigated in less than a century of healing, even in the absence of deliberate
management. We also point out that the “wilderness” value of the Teale wetland was in the eye of the beholder and that unseen
human impacts may have improved the aesthetic experience. |
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Keywords: | Wetland history Human impact Wilderness Geology |
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