Come to visit Seoul's wetlands

Come to visit Seoul's wetlands. February. 02, 2016 07:31. by 조영달 기자. February 2 is World Wetland Day. Surprisingly, there are not many people who know there are wetlands in Seoul. The Bamseom island in Seoul is a famous wetland but there are many other places that people are not aware of. These wetlands are great for healing and are places where one can visit easily by subway and bus.

Wetlands in an urban area are mostly artificially made. Key example is one in Bangi-dong, Songpa District in Seoul, where Seongnae and Gami streams meet. It is like a pond, a rare form of a wetland seen in cities. In early 1970s when a brick factory was being set up in this area, a puddle was formed during the sand digging work to which rain flew in resulting in a wetland.

The Bangi-dong wetland is popular as an ecology experience site where parents bring their children. Forest experts and ecology coordinators provide explanations there. If lucky, visitors can see woodpeckers and emberiza elegans, as well as tenodera aridifolia ooeciums and purple emperor pupa sitting on wood branches and thickets. The number of visitors is limited to 50 people due to concern of disturbance to ecosystem. There are also various ecology experience programs ranging from wetlands to streams and woods, as well as exhibitions and education programs.

In rice wetlands here in Bangi-dong wetland, people experience rice farming and harvest while attending wetland observation class. Bird observatory decks stimulate curiosity of visitors with egrets, herons and kingfishers. The ecology learning buildings are made of environment-friendly materials and their roofs are installed with solar power systems. "We are managing the area as not to damage nature through on-site monitoring aimed at maintaining environment-friendly wetlands," Songpa District Gov. Park Choon-hee said.

The Bamseom wetland is a repository of the Han River's natural ecology registered as a Ramsar wetland in 2012. It is composed of two islands with Seogang Bridge in the middle. As a habitat for migratory birds, Bamseom has reed fields, sand gravels and mud, which are growing bigger and bigger due to depositions from floods.

The Dunchon-dong wetland in Gangdong District is a wetland at a hill on the back of Dunchon Jugong Apartment. Though small in size, it has various marshy vegetation, birds, amphibians and insects. The Heoninreung wetland in Naegok-dong, Seocho District has rare alder trees.