Nearly three-quarters of Colorado's wildlife in some way depend upon wetlands for survival. Simply put, it's an area that's saturated by water for enough time during the year to support the growth of wetland vegetation. That amount of time may be all year long, a few months out of the year, or even just a few weeks out of the year. Wetlands can be filled with either fresh water or salt water, fed by proximity to a stream or river, or filled by spring snowmelt or seasonally heavy rains. A wetland can be a swamp, a cattail marsh, a wet meadow, a riverside tree grove, or a bog or fen.
Wetlands vary enormously in size.
A wetland can cover thousands of square miles, like the Everglades. It can be a small prairie pothole or western playa measuring just a few hundred square feet-or a tiny wet patch no larger than the trunk of a car. Wetlands are often described as the kidneys of the ecosystem because they filter out harmful materials. Marsh plants have the ability to purify the water and filter out toxic compounds. State of the art water treatment facilities utilizing wetlands ecology have been built in some communities, harnessing Mother Nature's superb ability to purify the water.