A Day in the Salt Marsh – a few resources

Chers Amis,

I am so excited! Next week we will be packing up and heading to the beach for a much needed spring break. We’ve decided to rent a cottage on Tybee Island, visit the historic city of Savannah, beach comb a bit, and explore the coastal salt marshes.  This week in preparation, we have been learning all about Salt Marsh ecology and wildlife.

Since salt marshes can be found all along the coasts of North America from Canada to south Florida, I thought that I would share a few resources we enjoyed that might also be of interest to any of you  planning a trip to the coastline this year.

My favorite is a picture book, A Day in the Salt Marsh written by Kevin Kurtz and lushly illustrated by Consie Powell. The image of the marsh to the left is by the illustrator so you all can see how beautiful this book is! If you can’t find a copy in your local library or bookstore, browse through the e-version at Google Books. Then, visit the book’s page at Sylvan Dell Publishing and print out the fabulous teaching materials available at the website.  Do not miss the interpretive guide which provides valuable information page by page on the animals and environment shown.  It also includes printable coloring pages of the illustrations as well as quizzes!  There are similar materials for all the Sylvan Dell titles.  Another Sylvan Dell book we loved was Carolina’s Story: Sea Turtles Get Sick Too! by Donna Rathmell.  It tells the story of a very ill loggerhead turtle that washes up on the beach in South Carolina and is rehabilitated and released back into the wild.

Now put on your boots and take a virtual tour of a Salt Marsh by Clemson University or slosh about Salt Marsh Life, a very good introductory site with  Interactive maps of East and West coast marshes as well as information on salt marsh animal and plant life. For information on high and low tide height and times click over to Tide Region Selection. In addition to tides it also shows sunrise, sunset, moon rise, and moon set times. All you do is choose a place, starting day, and length of period.  This will a useful tool for planning our hikes around the salt marshes and trips to the beach. I would really like to try sea kayaking too. On verra!

–Marjorie

PS -If that was not enough information to get you excited about salt marshes, here are a few books to read:

The Seashore: A Saltwater Web of Life by Philip Johansson

Marshes and Swamps: A Wetland Web of Life by Philip Johansson

Seashore Plants by Ernestine Giesecke

One Small Square: Seashore by Donald M. Silver

One Tiny Turtle by Nicola Davies