unpredictable environmental conditions. Consequently, all animals dependent on terrestrial habitat within or peripheral to the delimited wetland, or on terrestrial corridors between wetlands, are vulnerable to habitat modifications that affect these areas. Therefore, when human decisions to modify or protect wetland communities are based primarily on the presence of aquatic features, commercially important species, and aquatic connections to navigable waters, it is still possible to alter permanently biological systems designed and shaped by eons of natural selection.