Frogs and the sweet stench of swamp

It seems that there are not usually too many places on managed public lands where visitors are free to wade through a wetland.  Today I had the opportunity to get the boots wet and muddy in a coastal freshwater wetland at Beaver Creek State Park where a short dedicated trails runs right through swamp sans the usual catwalks. 

The wetland occupies the bottom of a valley extending from the coast to several miles inland.  The valley is sparsely populated with surrounding hillsides wooded with alder and conifers.  The abundance of alders suggests that the area had been logged at some point in the past.  The marsh as a whole itself appears to be largely dominated by at least 5 species of wetland plants: cattail (Typha latifolia), spikerush (Eleocharis), the invasive reed canary grass (Phalaris) and two species of Carex.   Other species appeared to include Potentilla anserina, bright yellow skunk cabbages, twinberry, trefoil, some grasses and Juncus. 

Like other marshes I have been in, disturbance of the water logged soil exposed the strong smell of anoxia.  This marsh was interesting too in that the ground was very spongy in some locations.  A few birds, some dancing insects, and skittish brown frogs constituted most of the fauna I observed.