Wetland Monitoring

What Do We Need?

Integration of Wetland Monitoring and Wetland Management

Wetlands and Waterways Program

Maryland Dept. of the Environment

Maryland Departments of Environment, Natural Resources, Agriculture, Transportation involved in various wetland management activities

Dept. of Environment:

Regulatory programs in tidal and nontidal wetlands

Agriculture and Forestry

Mitigation

Restoration

Planning and technical assistance

Monitoring

Water Quality Standards

Wetland Monitoring and Assessment program, methods, and tools should support other management activities

Maximize use of existing or routinely collected information

Minimize uncoordinated or inconsistent approaches and use of additional agency resources

Consolidate related information in data management system for multiple activities

Wetland Monitoring and Regulatory Program Implementation

Focus on rapid assessment (Level 2) supplemented by GIS (Level 1) and intensive data sampling (Level 3)

Consider condition and function

Variety of reference sites

Site specific data within watershed

Use information collected in regulatory permit process

• plant species, soils, hydrology, land use, wildlife use, degradation, functions

• ease of access

• Statewide coverage

Supplement with other field inventories

• public lands

• GIS

• Other lands

Other Existing Information

• water quality, biological, stream stability, flood studies

• Management Plans

• Functional assessments

• Local surveys

Challenges to Compilation and Use of Monitoring Information in a Wetland Regulatory Program

• Lack of staff time

• Scattered information sources

• Various resource management goals

Suggested solution….

Develop integrated data management system

Existing system:

• proposed impacts

• authorized impacts

• wetlands, floodplains, sensitive species, archeological/historical sites, watershed

Proposed system adds:

• wetland/water quality/biological assessment results

• reference sites, restoration sites, preservation areas

• management plan recommendations

• photos, design plans

Additional Resources Needed:

• Funding

• Programming expertise

• Data conversion and entry

• Field studies

Regulatory and Non-regulatory Management Benefits

• Improves targeting of restoration and protection areas

• Improves information exchange between programs

• Improves consistency of management decisions

• Improves efficiency of permit process