World Wetlands Day is observed every year on February 2nd to raise awareness about the importance of wetlands and promote their conservation.
It marks the anniversary of the Ramsar Convention, an international treaty signed in 1971 in Ramsar, Iran, for the protection of wetlands.
The World Wetlands Day awareness campaign has great promotional material to share widely!! The campaign is organized by the Secretariat of the Convention on Wetlands.
World Wetlands Day 2025 is of particular significance, as it coincides with the 15th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Convention on Wetlands (COP15). Every three years, representatives of the governments of each of the Contracting Parties meet to facilitate crucial discussions on the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands and to agree on a work program for the next three years. Zimbabwe is the global conservation arena for COP15 – scheduled for 23-31 July 2025.
While the United States Supreme Court restricted the definition of federally-regulated wetlands in its Sackett opinion, the States of the Headwaters of the Ohio have their own wetlands programs.
Pennsylvania has over 400,000 acres of wetland, down from over one million, as estimated by the National Association of Wetland Managers. The Commonwealth’s wetland programs are implemented by the Bureau of Waterways Engineering and Wetlands.
West Virginia has lost more than 80% of the wetlands once found in the state. In West Virginia, DEP works with other agencies to protect wetlands through monitoring, assessment, restoration, and regulation.
In New York, the Department of Environmental Conservation recently updated regulations under the State’s Freshwater Wetlands Act that will safeguard an estimated one million additional acres of wetland habitat. The implementation of this program is awareness and dialogue in the Chautauqua Lake region.
If you enjoy winter’s serene beauty of cold white broken by animal tracks…spend this mid-winter weekend visiting some of the beautiful wetlands that are truly the Headwaters of the Ohio:
The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy’s LeBoeuf Wetlands Conservation Area near Waterford, PA
The Red House Wetlands Interpretive Trail in Allegany State Park.
