Contact information: 413/775-1420
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Contact: Liz Carroll
Phone: 413/775-1420
E-mail: carroll@gcc.mass.edu

Media contact: Liz Carroll
Marketing & Publications
413/775-1420 | carroll@gcc.mass.edu

Release date: April 11, 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Learn about the rainforest in our midst

For sheer biomass and diversity of life, there's nothing like a rainforest—unless it's a wetland. Like the rainforest, wetlands are valuable, mysterious and threatened. That's why Patricia Serrentino and her husband, Alex Haro, are offering a new workshop, "Exploring Wetland Plants and Animals of the Deerfield River Watershed,” starting Tuesday, May 3rd and 10th, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., with a Saturday field trip on May 14th.

"They're sort of magical places,” says Serrentino, "because they're hard to get into. You can literally have your boot sucked off your foot in the muck! Because of this, people don't seem to like wetlands, or they think of them as places where you throw your trash. But they're places that are really interesting to visit. If you want to look for insects, you can find them. If you want to look for plants, if you want to look for birds, if you want to look for frogs and toads, wetlands are the place. There's just a lot more life crammed into these spaces.”

That's what workshop participants will discover, and more, like how to protect wetlands. "People like to drain them to build houses, or they build houses right up to the edge and think that's OK,” says Serrentino. "But it's not OK because a lot of the animals that use wetlands also use the adjacent areas that are dryer. Say, you put a development in and you have a swamp and you put the houses right up to the edge. Some of those animals won't be able to use the wetland anymore because you've destroyed some of the habitat that they need. That's the case with turtles.”

Serrentino has conducted wetlands-related research for over 20 years. Her husband, Alex Haro, is a fish biologist at the Conte Anadramous Fish Laboratory.

"Our hope is that participants will gain a real appreciation that these areas need to be protected and need to be respected. But also that they're places that just make you feel better, like when you stand there early in the morning, especially, say, in June, and the sun's coming up and there's some fog over them and the birds are singing and frogs are calling. There's more to wetlands than just meets the eye driving by at 40 miles an hour every morning on your way to work.”

To sign up for CSW 199-2 ($95), please call 775-1803 (9 to 5), or the 24-hour line at 774-7690 (credit card only), as soon as possible.