Wetlands are areas that flood regularly and support plants adapted to flooding. They have been disappearing at an alarming rate in the United States and elsewhere. Although Louisiana accounts for only 12 percent of the continental coastal wetlands, it is currently experiencing 80 percent of the total coastal wetlands loss, amounting to 25-35 square miles lost every year. Wetlands are protected by law because they are ecologically important and perform many useful functions: they provide wildlife habitat, absorb excess nutrients and pollutants, purify water, trap sediments, temporarily store floodwaters, and recharge groundwater reserves. They also serve as nurseries for commercially and recreationally important fish and provide habitat for nearly 50 percent of the nation's threatened and endangered animals. In Louisiana, wetlands include cypress-tupelo swamps, freshwater and saltwater marshes, bottomland hardwood forests, and pine savannas. Cypress Island is the largest forested wetland tract in the Bayou Teche/Vermilion River Basin, and Cypress Island Preserve provides wetland habitat for a large wading bird rookery in the southern portion of Lake Martin that supports more than 20,000 pairs of birds during peak nesting season in April-May, including Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, Little Blue Herons, Cattle Egrets, Yellow-crowned Night-Herons, and Roseate Spoonbills.