(with a sad smlle) I don't believe this is a good day to get out in this gentle cold rain to ponder the use of wetlands. However, There are a good many year around wet places near me. They provide teh wild life of the bog - as in turtles, frogs, toads, frogs, all sorts of plant life - as in pink lady slippers as well as the more elusive yellow lady slippers, jewel weed with its reddish pink blossoms, trilliums, with white blossoms growing close to the ground, wild strawberries whose fruit are showing now and very much loved by turtles. It used to be 40 or more years ago, that were places off US 1 with huge fields of blooming pink lady slippers. They disappeared completely when a developer put in an apartment community (alas). There like areas of hard to find groups of violets, with large two-color blue and white blossoms. The wetlands also have/had many populations of ferns of all kinds. Where the sewage plant is now was one of those places. The mayapple with its large twin leaves covering the lovely white flower, which should be in bloom now used to be all over the places of wet ground, along with what is generally called "Skunk Cabbage" and "Jack in the Pulpit". The bluets, which have a patch along Belmont Boulevard have finished blooming. If you were drawn to the sight of something blue by the side of the road, you may have seen them. Please never pluck the flowers, you kill the plant which grows so close to the surface.