Wetlands are areas that are periodically saturated with or covered by water.
The presence of water in these areas is the major factor in determining the types of soils that develop and the kind of plants and animals that live there. Since the water level often varies in a wetland, certain plants and wet soils are usually good indicators of a wetland. Wetlands occur along the coast as well as inland. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lists twenty different wetland categories. Familiar types of wetlands include the marshes, swamps, bogs, vernal pools and the shallow water zones of rivers, lakes and ponds.