The historic Lake Conestee was established in the early 1800s through damming of the Reedy River to harness the rivers waterpower for early mills. By 1892, construction of the existing rock dam had created a 130-acre lake. Over the course of many years, this lake has undergone a natural ecological progression as sediments and soils have filled approximately 90 percent of the lake. As a result, nature has created a lush bottomland forest containing large wetlands, 1.5 miles of the Reedy River, and a rich diversity of wildlife habitat.
. Wetlands are located within topographic features that are lower in elevation than the surrounding landscape such as depressions, valleys, and flat areas.
Also, a wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with moisture either permanently or seasonally. Such areas may also be covered partially or completely by shallow pools of water. Wetlands include swamps, marshes, and bogs, among others.
The water found in wetlands can be saltwater, freshwater, or brackish. The world's largest wetland is the Pantanal which straddles Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay in South America. There are about 4.5 million acres of wetlands in South Carolina, about 23.4 percent of the state’s land surface. Only four states — Alaska, Florida, Louisiana and Maine — have a higher percentage of wetlands, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
South Carolina’s wetlands account for about 12 percent of wetlands in the southeastern United States. Wetlands are considered the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems.
Plant life found in wetlands includes mangrove, water lilies, cattails, sedges, tamarack, black spruce, cypress, gum, and many others. Animal life includes many different amphibians, reptiles, birds, insects, and mammals. When you arrive at the posted coordinates, you will learn about this geological feature, and the hydrolic (water related) benefits a wetland such as this has on the surrounding area.
One of many benefits are that wetlands are considered a important protector of water quality, because they filter out sediments, they retain water during heavy rainfall helping to provide a buffer for flooding, and in some cases, the help recharge groundwater supplies.
Plant Life: Water saturated soils create stressfull growing conditions for most trees and shrubs. Plant roots require oxygen, which they obtain from the air in the spaces between the soil particles. If the soil is saturated with water, roots cannot breathe, and if this condition exists for a long period, and the plant is not adapted to live in wet soils, the plant will die. To overcome this problem, aqautic plants have vascular tubes that transport air down to the roots. Trees that are adapted to wetland habitats have roots that spread across the surface of the soil where it allows better air exchange. A wetland is identified by three distinctive characteristics: -the presence of wetland soils -wetland vegetation -hydrology There are several ways in which to categorise wetlands. -Marshes/swamps: areas where water is more or less permanently at the surface and/or causing saturation of the soil (e.g. papyrus swamp, fen, peatlands) -Shallow lakes: areas of permanent or semi-permanent water with little flow (e.g. ponds, salt lakes, volcanic crater lakes). -Coasts: areas between land and open sea that are not influenced by rivers (e.g. shorelines, beaches, mangroves and coral reefs) -Estuaries: where rivers meet the sea and water changes from fresh to salt as it meets the sea (e.g. deltas, tidal mudflats and salt marches) -Floodplains: areas next to the permanent course of a river that extends to the edge of the valley (e.g. ox-bow lakes and river-islands)
1.) What do you believe is the catagory of this wetland?,
2.) What effect does soil erosion play in this wetland?
3.) What do the skeletons of dead trees in the wetland indicate?
4.)What type of plants thrive in this wetland environment.
For fun if you wish to, please post a photo of your team at the posted coords.
CONGRATULATIONS FTF: OCONEEBELL
Parking: Park information kiosks with trail maps are located at all Lake Conestee Nature Park trailheads. •840 Mauldin Road (LCNP’s main entrance; trailhead located at former Municipal Stadium, across from FedEx) •701 Fork Shoals Road (from Fork Shoals Rd., enter Belmont Fire Dept., parking and trailhead are located behind Belmont Fire Department) •601 Fork Shoals Road (opposite junction of Fork Shoals Rd. and White Horse Rd. Extension) •Henderson Avenue (from Fork Shoals Rd., take Henderson Ave. continuing east until Henderson Ave. dead ends [junction with Meadors Ave.] , parking lot and trailhead located on the right) •1 Spanco Drive (from Conestee Rd. take Spanco Dr. past Conestee Mill, parking lot and trailhead located on the right)