What is a wetland? A swamp? A marsh? A bog? A fen? A pocosin? The sheer diversity of these terms can conjure up a variety of images and represents the difficulty of defining the natural world in precise terms. Wetlands are diverse areas where the presence of water for extendedperiods of time exerts a controlling influence on the plant communities, soil properties, and animals that exist in them. According to the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Definition of 1979: "Wetlands are lands transitional between terrestrial and aquatic systems where the water table is usually at or near the surface or the land is covered by shallow water." More complex than the definition of wetlands has been society's relationship with them, which has been characterized by a long history of misunderstanding. Historically wetlands were viewed as unappealing, useless, disease-ridden places. As a result of this perception many wetlands were drained, cleared and put into crop production. In urban areas, other wetlands were filled for houses, industrial facilities, office buildings and sanitary landfills. The Chesapeake Bay watershed alone experienced substantial losses of wetlands between the mid 1950's and the late 1970's with average losses of over 2,800 acres a year! Such a history has left us with a landscape devoid of about 42 % of Virginia's original wetlands.

The definition goes on to say that in order to be classified as a wetland the area must have one or more of the following three attributes:
1) the land supports predominately hydrophytes, which are water-loving vegetation,
2) the soil is classified as hydric, which means water is present long enough during the growing season to create low oxygen conditions,
3) the hydrology of the region is such that the area is saturated at some point during the growing season.

It is important to note that the FWS definition requires one of the characterizing attributes to be present. Regulatory definitions are less encompassing and require all three - soil, hydrology and vegetation - to be present in order to be classified as a wetland (Moulds, 2005).

More complex than the definition of wetlands has been society's relationship with them, which has been characterized by a long history of misunderstanding. Historically wetlands were viewed as unappealing, useless, disease-ridden places. As a result of this perception many wetlands were drained, cleared and put into crop production. In urban areas, other wetlands were filled for houses, industrial facilities, office buildings and sanitary landfills.

The Chesapeake Bay watershed alone experienced substantial losses of wetlands between the mid 1950's and the late 1970's with average losses of over 2,800 acres a year! Such a history has left us with a landscape devoid of about 42 % of Virginia's
original wetlands.