Blackjack Creek (also known as Black Jack Branch) is a stream in Johnson County in the U.S. state of Missouri. [1] It is a tributary of the Blackwater River.The creek is primarily known for its contribution to the local ecosystem, offering a habitat for various species of fish and other aquatic wildlife. It also plays a significant role in drainage and flood management for nearby communities. Although relatively small compared to major rivers, Blackjack Creek holds cultural and historical significance for residents in its vicinity. Blackjack Creek was named for the blackjack oak trees lining its course. [2]
Blackjack Creek originates in the upland areas of its region, flowing through both urban and rural landscapes. The creek meanders through woodlands, agricultural lands, and residential areas before eventually merging with a larger river system. Its course can vary depending on seasonal rainfall, with water levels rising significantly during heavy rains, which can sometimes lead to localized flooding in low-lying areas. This makes it a critical component of regional water management strategies.
Blackjack Creek supports a variety of wildlife that thrives in and around its waters. Fish species, such as largemouth bass, bluegill, and catfish, are prevalent in the creek, making it a popular spot for fishing. Amphibians like frogs and salamanders find refuge in the wetlands along the creek’s banks. Reptiles, including turtles and snakes, can also be found basking in the sun near the water’s edge. The surrounding woodlands are home to numerous bird species, including herons, kingfishers, and various songbirds. These species rely on the creek for water, food, and shelter, making it a key habitat in the local ecosystem. [3]
The creek is lined with a diverse array of plant species that contribute to the health of the waterway. Native grasses and shrubs stabilize the soil along the banks, preventing erosion and helping to filter runoff before it reaches the creek. Hardwood trees such as oak, maple, and sycamore are commonly found in the riparian zones, providing shade that helps regulate the water temperature, which is crucial for maintaining a balanced aquatic ecosystem. These plants not only serve as habitat for wildlife but also play an essential role in maintaining the water quality of Blackjack Creek. [3]
Historically, Blackjack Creek has been a vital resource for the communities that have developed around it. Early settlers utilized the creek for freshwater, irrigation, and occasionally for transportation. Today, the creek remains a recreational destination, attracting anglers, hikers, and nature enthusiasts. Local governments and environmental groups have worked together to preserve the natural beauty of Blackjack Creek while ensuring it remains a functional part of the area’s water management system. [ citation needed ]
In recent years, efforts have been made to maintain and restore the ecological health of Blackjack Creek. These initiatives include controlling erosion, reducing pollution, and protecting the native species that depend on the creek’s ecosystem. Several programs have also been established to educate the public about the importance of the creek and how they can contribute to its conservation. [ citation needed ]
A swamp is a forested wetland. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in creating this environment. Swamps vary in size and are located all around the world. The water of a swamp may be fresh water, brackish water, or seawater. Freshwater swamps form along large rivers or lakes where they are critically dependent upon rainwater and seasonal flooding to maintain natural water level fluctuations. Saltwater swamps are found along tropical and subtropical coastlines. Some swamps have hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodic inundation or soil saturation. The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp forests and "transitional" or shrub swamps. In the boreal regions of Canada, the word swamp is colloquially used for what is more formally termed a bog, fen, or muskeg. Some of the world's largest swamps are found along major rivers such as the Amazon, the Mississippi, and the Congo.
Clear Lake is a natural freshwater lake in Lake County in the U.S. state of California, north of Napa County and San Francisco. It is the largest natural freshwater lake wholly within the state, with 68 square miles (180 km2) of surface area. It has an age of nearly 500,000 years. It is the latest lake to occupy a site with a history of lakes stretching back at least 2,500,000 years.
The Piney Woods is a temperate coniferous forest terrestrial ecoregion in the Southern United States covering 54,400 square miles (141,000 km2) of East Texas, southern Arkansas, western Louisiana, and southeastern Oklahoma. These coniferous forests are dominated by several species of pine as well as hardwoods including hickory and oak. Historically the most dense part of this forest region was the Big Thicket though the lumber industry dramatically reduced the forest concentration in this area and throughout the Piney Woods during the 19th and 20th centuries. The World Wide Fund for Nature considers the Piney Woods to be one of the critically endangered ecoregions of the United States. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines most of this ecoregion as the South Central Plains.
The Yolo Bypass is one of the two flood bypasses in California's Sacramento Valley located in Yolo and Solano Counties. Through a system of weirs, the bypass diverts floodwaters from the Sacramento River away from the state's capital city of Sacramento and other nearby riverside communities.
The Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge (LSNWR) is part of the United States National Wildlife Refuge System. It is located in southeastern Dixie and northwestern Levy counties on the western coast of Florida, approximately fifty miles southwest of the city of Gainesville.
A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. In some regions, the terms riparian woodland, riparian forest, riparian buffer zone, riparian corridor, and riparian strip are used to characterize a riparian zone. The word riparian is derived from Latin ripa, meaning "river bank".
Sonoma Creek is a 33.4-mile-long (53.8 km) stream in northern California. It is one of two principal drainages of southern Sonoma County, California, with headwaters rising in the rugged hills of Sugarloaf Ridge State Park and discharging to San Pablo Bay, the northern arm of San Francisco Bay. The watershed drained by Sonoma Creek is roughly equivalent to the wine region of Sonoma Valley, an area of about 170 square miles (440 km2). The State of California has designated the Sonoma Creek watershed as a “Critical Coastal Water Resource”. To the east of this generally rectangular watershed is the Napa River watershed, and to the west are the Petaluma River and Tolay Creek watersheds.
Copeland Creek is a 9.0-mile-long (14.5 km) perennial stream that rises on Sonoma Mountain in Sonoma County, California.
Colt Creek State Park is a Florida State Park in Central Florida, 16 miles (26 km) north of Lakeland off of State Road 471. This 5,067 acre park nestled within the Green Swamp Wilderness Area and named after one of the tributaries that flows through the property was opened to the public on January 20, 2007. Composed mainly of pine flatwoods, cypress domes and open pasture land, this piece of pristine wilderness is home to many animal species including the American bald eagle, Southern fox squirrel, gopher tortoise, white-tailed deer, wild turkey and bobcat.
A riparian buffer or stream buffer is a vegetated area near a stream, usually forested, which helps shade and partially protect the stream from the impact of adjacent land uses. It plays a key role in increasing water quality in associated streams, rivers, and lakes, thus providing environmental benefits. With the decline of many aquatic ecosystems due to agriculture, riparian buffers have become a very common conservation practice aimed at increasing water quality and reducing pollution.
Great Valley Grasslands State Park is a state park of California, United States, preserving a parcel of remnant native grassland in the San Joaquin Valley. Such a temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome was once widespread throughout the whole Central Valley. The 2,826-acre (1,144 ha) park was established in 1982. Largely undeveloped, it was formed by combining two former state park units: San Luis Island and Fremont Ford State Recreation Area. Its chief attractions for visitors are spring wildflowers, fishing, and wildlife watching.
Wetland conservation is aimed at protecting and preserving areas of land including marshes, swamps, bogs, and fens that are covered by water seasonally or permanently due to a variety of threats from both natural and anthropogenic hazards. Some examples of these hazards include habitat loss, pollution, and invasive species. Wetland vary widely in their salinity levels, climate zones, and surrounding geography and play a crucial role in maintaining biodiversity, ecosystem services, and support human communities. Wetlands cover at least six percent of the Earth and have become a focal issue for conservation due to the ecosystem services they provide. More than three billion people, around half the world's population, obtain their basic water needs from inland freshwater wetlands. They provide essential habitats for fish and various wildlife species, playing a vital role in purifying polluted waters and mitigating the damaging effects of floods and storms. Furthermore, they offer a diverse range of recreational activities, including fishing, hunting, photography, and wildlife observation.
Kanaka Creek Regional Park is a regional park of the Greater Vancouver Regional District, located in the city of Maple Ridge, British Columbia, flanking both sides of Kanaka Creek from its confluence with the Fraser River just east of Haney and extending approximately 11 km up the creek to just south of the community of Webster's Corners. The Maple Ridge Fairgrounds are just east of the lower regions of the park, beyond them is the community of Albion. Derby Reach Regional Park is just across the Fraser in Langley.
The Cosumnes River Preserve is a nature preserve of over 51,000 acres (210 km2) located 20 miles (30 km) south of Sacramento, in the US state of California. The preserve protects a Central Valley remnant that once contained one of the largest expanses of oak tree savanna, riparian oak forest and wetland habitat in North America. Agricultural development has changed the landscape from groves of oaks and tule marshes to productive farmlands.
The Butte Creek Ecological Preserve and Butte Creek Canyon Ecological Reserve consist of 2 distinct management units, the Preserve, aka the "Honey Run Unit" 93 acres (0.38 km2) owned and managed by the Chico State Research Foundation, and the "Virgin Valley" and "Canyon" Units 287 acres (1.16 km2), owned and managed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The units are located east of Chico along Butte Creek in northern California. This stretch of Butte Creek is spawning habitat for the largest population of Central Valley spring-run Chinook salmon, an evolutionarily significant unit that is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Fall-run Chinook salmon and steelhead trout also spawn in the creek.
Riparian-zone restoration is the ecological restoration of riparian-zonehabitats of streams, rivers, springs, lakes, floodplains, and other hydrologic ecologies. A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. Riparian is also the proper nomenclature for one of the fifteen terrestrial biomes of the earth; the habitats of plant and animal communities along the margins and river banks are called riparian vegetation, characterized by aquatic plants and animals that favor them. Riparian zones are significant in ecology, environmental management, and civil engineering because of their role in soil conservation, their habitat biodiversity, and the influence they have on fauna and aquatic ecosystems, including grassland, woodland, wetland or sub-surface features such as water tables. In some regions the terms riparian woodland, riparian forest, riparian buffer zone, or riparian strip are used to characterize a riparian zone.
The Point Cook Coastal Park covers an area of 863 hectares and includes the Cheetham Wetlands. The park extends from the RAAF Williams Point Cook Base northeast along the coast to the Laverton creek which comprises its northern boundary. The park is approximately 20 kilometres (12 mi) from Melbourne, Australia in a southwesterly direction along Port Phillip Bay. The park is adjoined by the Point Cook Marine Sanctuary, which extends around the point to the south and the east. The northwestern boundary to the park is residential housing.
Widgeon Valley National Wildlife Area is a National Wildlife Area located near the south end of Pitt Lake in British Columbia, Canada. The property was purchased by the Nature Trust of British Columbia in 1973 and declared a National Wildlife Area by the Canadian Wildlife Service in October of that year. The Widgeon Valley National Wildlife Area is a biologically diverse marsh wetland. It is the traditional territory of various First Nations groups. The Widgeon Valley Wildlife Area is a protected wildlife area that is home to a number of sensitive waterfowl and fish species. The public uses the channels through the Widgeon Valley National Wildlife Area for recreational canoeing, anywhere else within the protected area is strictly off-limits to the public. There are future plans to develop interpretive trails through the park and open it to the public.
Arcade Creek is a waterway in Northeastern Sacramento County in central California, United States.
Rodman Slough is a wetland that drains into Clear Lake in Lake County, California. It provides an important habitat for fish, amphibians, birds and other wildlife. It is fed by Scotts Creek and Middle Creek, which contribute about 70% of the sediment and nutrients that cause algae problems in Clear Lake. The slough is the remnant of a much larger area of wetlands and open water that extended from Tule Lake to the northeast through a wide area of land north and east of the present slough that was drained for farmland. Since 1978 there have been proposals to restore large parts of the former wetlands, and much of the funding has been approved, but progress has been slow.
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