These days, people are destroying wetlands and building roads and buildings over it. People think that wetlands are not important, that they are just useless pieces of land. However, wetlands are vital for our life. Wetland filter the water clean, provide food supplies, stop global warming, and are homes to various living things. However, many people don’t know and still destroy wetlands. So, the Environmental Foundation and the Coca-Cola company started to work together to make a Coca-Cola Child Green Leadership course to teach children why wetlands are important. This time, the group of children including me went to Daegu Dalseong Wetland.
First, we went to Hwawon Recreation Area to look the wetland from above. As we walked, the teacher explained many types of plants, like Goldenrain trees, Chinese Fringetrees, and Korean Starworts. We also had mission cards we had to complete. The mission cards had stuff written on like ‘find a plant with three colors.’. As we did that, we went up a cliff and observed the wetland from below. Our teacher explained that endangered eagle owls lived just below this cliff. She also said that the wetlands had many problems because people started to make more roads and buildings. Beacause of the bright lights and many visitors, the animals in the wetland are having a hard time. We were angry that people were destroying wetlands for something they did not really need, just want. After, we went down to explore the wetland. There were many plants and insects in the wetland. However, there was also a plant called Bur Cucumber that was killing other plants by covering them so they could not get sunlight. So, the first thing we did was the root them out. We were happy when we thought we were helping the enviroment. Then, we went to collect insects. We found ladybugs, grasshoppers, spiders, and more. After observing them, we sent them free. Lastly, we wrote rules when going to the home of eagle owls, like being quiet near them and not throwing trash away.
So, this course helped me to learn the importance of wetlands. How could people destroy them if they learned how much life they have? We should stop destroying them and start to protect them, for they are the key to our future.