NAWM

Coastal Blue Carbon - What's all the Fuss About?

Tuesday, December 11, 2012 – 2:00 p.m. EST

View Recorded Webinar

PRESENTER

• Steve Emmett-Mattox, Restore America’s Estuaries

Length: 90 minutes

Learn about the emerging concept of coastal blue carbon and how it could help achieve tidal wetland management goals. Topics will include

• The voluntary carbon markets
• The carbon storage and sequestration potential of tidal wetlands
• Current coastal blue carbon activities in the U.S. and globally, emphasis on the U.S.
• Application of coastal blue carbon to restoration and conservation
• How to get involved
• Future directions and next steps

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Water Quality Standards for Wetlands

Tuesday, November 27, 2012 – 3:00 p.m. EST

View Recorded Webinar

PRESENTERS

• Jeanne Christie and Jon Kusler, Association of State of Wetland Managers
• Jennifer Linn, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Length: 90 minutes

The Association of State of Wetland Managers recently completed a two-year project on the development of water quality standards for wetlands, which included a comprehensive document “Wetland Water Quality Standards for States" available here. Characteristics of wetlands differ from lakes and rivers. Many of the parameters used to develop standards for flowing and deep water habitats are not applicable to wetlands, which often do not have standing water year-round. Jon Kusler and Jeanne Christie along with Jennifer Linn from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will:

• summarize the project
• review the typical framework for the development of water quality standards,
• describe how these can be applied to address wetlands and
• explore how the recently completed document and other resources available can be used by states and tribes to aid in development of water quality standards for wetlands.

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National Wetland Plant List

Tuesday, October 2, 2012 – 3:00 p.m. EST

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PRESENTER

• Dr. Bob Lichvar of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 

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View Past Hot Topics Webinars

PDF List of Past Hot Topics Webinar Recordings

View Upcoming Hot Topics Webinars

 

Improving Wetland Restoration "Success": What We've Learned So Far

Held Tuesday, December 15, 2015 – 3:00 p.m. EST

PRESENTERS

• Jeanne Christie, Executive Director and Marla Stelk, Policy Analyst, Association of State Wetland Managers
• David Olson, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
• Mary Kentula, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s, National Health and Environmental Effects Laboratory’s, Western Ecology Division
• Larry Urban, Montana Department of Transportation
  

PowerPoint presentation is available here. 

ABSTRACT

This webinar looked back at the lessons learned about what the barriers and challenges for wetland restoration are that have been shared with all of you throughout this webinar series since it was first aired in September of 2014. After the initial presentation by Jeanne Christie and Marla Stelk at ASWM, joining the webinar was David Olson, USACE, Mary Kentula, EPA, and Larry Urban, Montana DOT who have been engaged in listening to the webinar series and have decades of experience in addressing the scientific and programmatic challenges posed by restorations of wetlands. They shared their perspectives on our findings, reflected on recent advances in wetland restoration including information shared during the restoration webinar series, and identify key actions to take to improve wetland restoration outcomes.

BIOS

Jeanne Christie, Executive Director, Association of State Wetland Managers

Marla Stelk, Policy Analyst, Association of State Wetland Managers

David Olson is a Regulatory Program Manager at the Headquarters office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He has worked for the Corps since 1991, beginning as a Regulatory Project Manager at the Baltimore District, evaluating permit applications for work in waters and wetlands. In 2002, he began working at his current position at Corps Headquarters. He spent several years working on the 2008 mitigation rule for wetland and stream mitigation. He also manages the Corps' nationwide permit program and is working on Endangered Species Act compliance and developing an approach for cumulative effects analysis.

Dr. Mary E. Kentula is a Wetlands Ecologist with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) National Health and Environmental Effects Laboratory’s Western Ecology Division in Corvallis, Oregon. From 1992 through 1996 she served as the national program leader for the Agency’s Wetland Research Program and was responsible for directing and coordinating studies of freshwater wetlands across the Nation. Mary’s research within the Program focused on the use of restoration techniques in wetland management. Among Mary’s publications from that work is the book, Wetland Creation and Restoration: The Status of the Science (1990), which she co-edited with Dr. Jon Kusler. Mary’s current work supports EPA’s National Aquatic Resource Surveys through the development of approaches to monitor and report on the ecological condition of wetlands. In 2007 the Society of Wetland Scientists recognized Dr. Kentula with the Merit Award for her work in assessing wetlands at the watershed scale. This was followed by the successful completion of the field work for the first National Wetland Condition Assessment (NWCA) in 2011. Mary’s research team led the production of the field operations manual used in the assessment, played a major role in data analysis, and wrote the technical report which details the science behind the results of the 2011 NWCA. Her team is presently looking forward to the second NWCA in summer 2016.

Lawrence J. “Larry” Urban, is the wetland mitigation specialist for the Montana Department of Transportation with state-wide responsibilities based out of Helena, Montana. He has over 30 years of experience in wetland delineations, functional assessments, monitoring and mitigation site development for both the New Jersey and Montana Department of Transportations. He has been involved in the development of a comprehensive aquatic resource mitigation program to meet wetland and stream mitigation needs for transportation projects throughout the state of Montana that has created over 55 mitigation areas ranging in size from ½ to 300 acres in size. He developed an annual monitoring program for the purposes of managing aquatic resource mitigation sites on both private and state lands to comply with federal, state and Tribal permitting requirements. Assisted in the funding, development and continued oversight of the Montana Department of Transportation’s Montana Wetland Assessment Method (MWAM) originally developed in 1989. He has also presented at a number of National and regional wetland mitigation conferences, and participates in annual continuing education courses as an instructor in wetland regulations, mitigation and wetland assessments in the state of Montana.

 

Novel Ecosystems and Restoration

Held Thursday, November 19, 2015 – 3:00 p.m. EST

Introduction – Marla Stelk, Policy Analyst, Association of State Wetland Managers and Jeanne Christie, Association of State Wetland Managers

PRESENTERS

• Joy Zedler, Professor of Botany and Aldo Leopold Chair of Restoration Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Marilyn Jordan, Former Senior Conservation Scientist, The Nature Conservancy on Long Island, NY

PowerPoint presentation:  Joy Zedler - Marilyn Jordan

ABSTRACTS

Joy Zedler, Professor of Botany and Aldo Leopold Chair of Restoration Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Novelty is not new; it’s the norm. The earliest restorationists worked in novel sites to achieve imprecise targets. In 1934, Aldo Leopold dedicated an “arboretum” for restoration of pre-settlement plant communities. Efforts to convert cultivated fields and pastures proceeded opportunistically and gave birth to tallgrass prairie restoration. The claim that early practitioners insisted on achieving some “original” condition is a popular myth that leads some to say we need novel targets and new terms, like “intervention.” Critics caution that the word “restoration” is key to public support and funding. Saying “Hey, let’s go intervene…” won’t likely energize volunteers, while “Let’s restore a prairie” does so in schoolyards and fields across Wisconsin. If we acknowledge historical disturbances, conduct experiments that compare restoration methods, and proceed adaptively, we will gradually improve our ability to restore what we can, where we can, and in the most efficient way. Let’s make adaptive restoration the new norm.

Marilyn Jordan, Former Senior Conservation Scientist, The Nature Conservancy on Long Island, NY

Novel ecosystems are new, historically unprecedented combinations of species created primarily by direct and indirect human actions, and now occupy ~40% of the terrestrial ice-free globe. Invasion by non-native plant species is typical in many novel ecosystems, which usually results in decreased native plant species diversity and biomass. Native insects, which depend on native plants, also decrease which in turn leads to simplified food webs and losses of higher trophic level species. Lost biodiversity reduces ecosystem resilience and degrades ecosystem function. The idea that despite their deficiencies novel ecosystems have value and should be considered part of nature is highly controversial and is seen by some (inappropriately in my view) as a “license to trash nature.” I think that the new science of novel ecosystems management offers a thoughtful way forward to manage for conservation goals when restoration to a historic condition is no longer possible.

PRESENTERS BIOS

Joy Zedler is Professor of Botany at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Aldo Leopold Professor of Restoration Ecology and Research Director at the Arboretum. Her research and writings concern wetlands, restoration, and conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services; she promotes Adaptive Restoration, mentors students, and helps edit the journal, Restoration Ecology. She advises many organizations on environmental issues and restoration projects. She is a Fellow of the Society of Wetland Scientists and a Fellow of the Ecological Society of America, in recognition of her research and service.

Dr. Marilyn Jordan retired in 2014 as a Senior Conservation Scientist for The Nature Conservancy on Long Island, NY after working for TNC since 1992. She grew up in Queens, NYC and got a BA in biology from Queens College (1966) and a Ph.D. in plant ecology from Rutgers University (1971). Her career experience includes ecological monitoring, invasive plant science, nutrient cycling, soil and water pollution, microbial ecology, atmospheric deposition, ecological impacts of deer browse in forests, fire as a restoration tool and novel ecosystems.

Wetland Restoration in Urban and Highly Disturbed Landscapes

Held Tuesday, October 13, 2015 – 3:00 p.m. ET

Introduction – Marla Stelk, Policy Analyst, Association of State Wetland Managers and Jeanne Christie, Association of State Wetland Managers

PRESENTERS

• Tom Ries, President and Founder of Ecosphere Restoration Institute
• Steven I. Apfelbaum, Principal Ecologist, Chairman, Applied Ecological Services, Inc.
• Alexander J. Felson, PhD RLA, Assistant Professor, Yale University School of Architecture & School of Forestry and Environmental Studies

PowerPoint presentations: Tom Ries - Steven I. Apfelbaum - Alexander J. Felson

ABSTRACT

Urban environments and highly disturbed landscapes create unique challenges and opportunities for wetland restoration. In this webinar, we will hear from three experts in the field of ecological restoration. Our presenters will discuss landscape hydrology changes resulting from urbanization and agricultural practices, current and recent case studies and how good design can enhance social and environmental outcomes.

PRESENTERS BIOS

Thomas Ries has a biology degree from USF with a minor in Geology; he has worked in both the public and private sectors. He has extensive experience with estuarine ecosystems and has implemented over 90+ habitat restoration projects in this region; many of these have won awards of environmental excellence. In 2002, he founded the non-profit organization, Ecosphere Restoration Institute, to implement Public/Private/Partnerships to help preserve and restore coastal ecosystems. In 2013, he was presented with the National Habitat Restoration and Conservation Award by the Environmental Law Institute. The restoration of Ulele Springs was funded and implemented under his direction.

Steven I. Apfelbaum, M.S. is Senior Ecologist and Chairman of the Board/Founder, Applied Ecological Services, Inc. Steve Apfelbaum has been a full-time research and consulting ecologist with AES since 1978. Apfelbaum earned his MS Degree in Ecological and Biological Sciences at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and is trained as an animal and plant ecologist. He has been a scientist in hundreds of field ecological projects and data analysis projects. He has authored or co-authored hundreds of technical studies, reports, ecological program plans, restoration plans, and monitoring and compliance reports for research projects and for regulatory program reporting. Apfelbaum teaches a course at the Harvard Graduate School of Design on the future of coastal systems on earth and holds adjunct professorships and lectureships at several other universities.

Dr. Felson is an assistant Professor at Yale University, an urban ecologist and a landscape architect. He directs the joint degree program between the School of Architecture and Forestry at Yale and founded the Urban Ecology and Design Lab. Felson focuses on ecological urban design through green infrastructure, coastal adaptation and constructed ecosystems. He led Yale’s efforts for Rebuild by Design and led the vision development for Connecticut’s phase one HUD’s NDRC. Felson is a leader in the ESA’s Earth Stewardship Initiative and has developed ecologically based urban design projects along the American River in Sacramento and in Baltimore.

Stream-Wetland Restoration

 

 

Held Tuesday, September 8, 2015 – 3:00 p.m. ET

Introduction – Marla Stelk, Policy Analyst, Association of State Wetland Managers and Jeanne Christie, Association of State Wetland Managers

PRESENTERS 

• Will Harman, Owner, Stream Mechanics
• Matt Daniels, Principal Engineer/Project Manager, River Design Group, Inc.

PowerPoint presentation is available here.

ABSTRACTS

Determining Functional Lift of Stream/Wetland Restoration Projects

Will Harman, PG, Stream Mechanics

As compensatory stream mitigation increases, a recognized need for debit/credit determination methods for stream/wetland combinations is also increasing. Most mitigation guidelines account for wetland and stream debits/credits separately. However, Interagency Review Teams and practitioners realize that there is value in restoring valley corridors that support riverine and wetland functions together. This presentation will illustrate how the Stream Functions Pyramid Framework can be used as one tool for describing functional lift of stream/wetland complexes. Case studies will be provided to show metrics and performance standards for showing functional lift, along with lessons learned from implementing these types of projects.

Use of an Ecosystem-based Approach for Stream and Wetland Restoration

Matt Daniels, P.E., River Design Group, Inc.

The need for stream and wetland restoration projects in the western U.S., in particular the Northern Rockies and Columbia River Basin, is often driven by different mitigation objectives than those in the eastern U.S. The effects of large hydropower dams, extensive mining in headwater streams and grazing of riparian floodplains have altered migration corridors and aquatic habitat used by native fish populations, thus contributing to the listing of several threatened and endangered fish species. Extensive research has been undertaken to improve our understanding of these species life history needs and the ecosystems in which they exist. This presentation will describe some of the restoration challenges that are unique to the western U.S in the context of addressing stream and wetland mitigation. Example projects will be used to illustrate the use of an ecosystem-based restoration approach and to highlight some of the lessons learned.

PRESENTERS BIOS

Mr. Harman is the founder of Stream Mechanics and Ecosystem Planning and Restoration. In the course of his 24-year career, he has participated in hundreds of stream restoration projects, representing a wide variety of settings and techniques. He has authored or co-authored numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and proceeding papers and developed the Stream Functions Pyramid. Mr. Harman teaches stream restoration workshops to federal, state, and local agencies, universities, and private engineering firms. Prior to working in the private sector, Mr. Harman was on the faculty at NC State University, where he co-founded and led the NC Stream Restoration Program. Mr. Harman’s combination of academic and private-sector experience provide a unique skill set for teaching stream restoration principles and applications.

Mr. Harman has a Master’s degree in Geography from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Bachelor’s degree in Geography from Appalachian State University. He is a licensed Geologist in North Carolina.

Matt Daniels, P.E. is a principal and founding shareholder of River Design Group, Inc. In over 20 years of experience as a civil engineer, he has participated in the planning, design and implementation of over 70 water resources projects in Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon. His expertise includes project planning, technical support and construction oversight for large-scale, ecosystem restoration projects. Matt frequently speaks at design symposiums and conferences on the subjects of river restoration, fish passage and project case studies. He is a licensed professional engineer in seven western states. Outside of work, Matt enjoys mountain biking, fishing, skiing, and playing hockey.

August – No Webinar

Peat Land Restoration  

Held Tuesday, July 14, 2015 – 3:00 pm ET

Introduction – Marla Stelk, Policy Analyst, Association of State Wetland Managers and Jeanne Christie, Association of State Wetland Managers

PRESENTERS

• Norman Famous & Marcia Spencer-Famous, Spencer-Famous Environmental Consultants
• Richard Weber, NRCS Wetland Team
• Larry Urban, Montana Department of Transportation

PowerPoint presentation is available here.

ABSTRACT

This webinar will focus on freshwater wetlands which feature organic soils, including peats, mucky peats, and mucks. These wetlands do not have a consistent set of hydrologic inputs and common landscape positions. However, they can be functionally separated into distinct categories based on their watershed position, and their dominant water source. The webinar will present a discussion of restoration of damaged organic soil wetlands, using three case studies from Maine, Michigan and Montana as examples.

In a general sense, peatlands and those with other organic soils are a type of freshwater wetland with a thick organic soil layer, and are referred to by many names, for example: bogs, fens, mires, pocosins, or prairie potholes. There are many subtypes: domed bog, blanket bog, coastal plateau bog, aapa mire, circumneutral fen, etc. What they all have in common is a thick layer of organic soil and a dynamic development process by which the soil accumulates over time. While a salt marsh is technically a peatland, we are not including tidal systems in today’s talk.

In today’s presentation, we are focusing on ombrotrophic bogs and the more nutrient-rich fens, both of which have historically been drained and developed for peat mining, agriculture, and other kinds of development, resulting in large highly disturbed areas that are difficult to restore to the pre-disturbance condition. We will include three case studies with very different disturbance histories: A large, mined raised bog; a small fen imbedded in a forested wetland disturbed by development; and a intermountain valley bottom fen drained for agriculture. We will summarize the steps necessary to guide these ecosystems towards recovery, and discuss critical considerations, pitfalls, and the necessity of adaptive management.

PRESENTERS BIOS

Norman Famous has worked on peatlands since 1978, conducting environmental surveys and assessments, writing restoration plans and creating and restoring small peatlands. As part of a three-person team, Norm evaluated the natural recolonization and regeneration of 39 mined bogs in NE North America between 1987 and 1993 by sampling vegetation and evaluating environmental factors that influence natural restoration processes. The team prepared restoration plans for mined bogs in Maine (for industry); Canada (Province of New Brunswick), and Michigan (U.S, DOJ and EPA). In 1999, Norm was one of several expert witnesses in a U.S. DOJ/Environmental Defense Section and EPA enforcement case). Between 1993 and 1997 Norm conducted a breeding bird monitoring program for 23 mined and unmined peatlands in Maine and New Brunswick, Canada.

In 1991 Norm co-authored and presented papers on Natural Regeneration of Mined Peatlands in eastern NA and a radiotelemetry study on Coyote use of peatlands in Eastern Maine. In 1992, he was an invited speaker at a Peatland Reclamation Workshop in New Brunswick, Canada and at a workshop on the Status of Canadian Peatlands in Alberta, Canada where he summarized the current status of restoration work in North America. He co-chaired and presented at a peatland restoration session for the SWS in 1993. In 1994, Norm was an invited speaker at a symposium on Restoration of Temperate Wetlands in Sheffield, England, where he co-presented invited papers on natural restoration patterns in peatlands of Northeastern North America and on a reclamation plan for a bog flooded by seawater. During the 1990’s, Norm taught three peatland ecology and restoration accredited workshops, and taught Field Ornithology for over 20 years at the University of Maine in Orono. More recently, Norm co-presented a lecture on peatland restoration at the 2014 annual meeting of the Maine Association of Wetland Scientists.

Norm holds a M.S. degree in Plant Systematics from the University of Maine at Orono where he conducted a biosystematic study of three members of the Solidago canadensis complex in NE North America. Norm presently works as a wetlands/ecological consultant and lives in Augusta, Maine.

Marcia Spencer Famous has been employed as a Senior Planner for the State of Maine’s Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry since 1998, with a focus on large-scale development such as windpower and commercial/agricultural ground water withdrawal. Prior to her current position, from 1986 to 1990 Marcia was employed by Downeast Peat, LP, where she investigated natural patterns of recolonization of mined peatlands in order to develop a restoration plan for a mined bog in Maine; and then until 1998 was a self-employed environmental consultant, specializing in wetland assessment and delineation, damaged peatland restoration, and landscape analysis.

From 1986 to 1999, Marcia co-researched with her husband, Norman, and others, factors affecting the natural re-vegetation and regeneration of peatlands damaged by mining practices. In 1999, Marcia participated as one of several expert witnesses in a U.S. Department of Justice and Environmental Protection Agency enforcement case that involved developing a restoration plan for a mined peatland in Michigan. She presented various aspects of the peatland research at symposiums and conferences including: the ‘New Developments in Wetlands Science’ conference at the University of Sheffield, England (2001); the International Peat Society Annual Meeting in Quebec (2000); the Third and Fourth Annual Peatland Restoration Workshops at Laval University, Quebec (1995 and 1996), and more recently at the Maine Association of Wetland Scientists annual meeting in 2014.

In 2000, Marcia earned a MS in Botany and Plant Pathology at the University of Maine in Orono with a thesis, titled “The Potential for Restoration of Mined Ombrotrophic Peatlands” from which she published an invited paper in Wetlands Ecology and Management titled “Regeneration of three Sphagnum Species” (v.13, 2005: 635-645).

Richard A. Weber is a Wetland Hydraulic Engineer with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Wetland Team, CNTSC in Fort Worth, Texas from 2006 to present. In this role, Rich has provided national leadership on wetland hydrology, including: Support for Wetland Restoration Program, Wetland Protection Policy, and E.O. 11990 Wetland Assessments. He leads a national training cadre for Wetland Restoration and Enhancement and Hydrology Tools for Wetland Determination courses. From 2005-2006, Rich was Design Engineer at the NRCS Nebraska State Office where he had design and A&E Contracting responsibilities for PL-566, WRP, and EQIP programs. From 1999-2005, he was a Field Engineer at the NRCS in the Scottsbluff, NE Field Office where he had design, construction, and contracting responsibilities for the Wetland Reserve Program, EQIP Irrigation and Animal Waste Management, and CTA conservation practices. From 1997-1999, Rich was an Agricultural Engineer at the NRCS in Chehalis, WA where he had design, construction, and contracting responsibilities for Conservation District funded Stream Restoration and Fish Passage projects, and EQIP program Animal Waste Projects. And from 1986-1997, he was a Watershed Project Engineer at the NRCS in Horton, KS where he performed Construction Contract Administration for PL-566 Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention projects.

Urban, Lawrence J. “Larry” is the wetland mitigation specialist for the Montana Department of Transportation with state-wide responsibilities based out of Helena, Montana. He has over 30 years of experience in wetland delineations, functional assessments, monitoring and mitigation site development for both the New Jersey and Montana Department of Transportations. He has been involved in the development of a comprehensive aquatic resource mitigation program to meet wetland and stream mitigation needs for transportation projects throughout the state of Montana that has created over 55 mitigation areas ranging in size from ½ to 300 acres in size. He developed an annual monitoring program for the purposes of managing aquatic resource mitigation sites on both private and state lands to comply with federal, state and Tribal permitting requirements. Assisted in the funding, development and continued oversight of the Montana Department of Transportation’s Montana Wetland Assessment Method (MWAM) originally developed in 1989. He has also presented at a number of National and regional wetland mitigation conferences and participates in annual continuing education courses as an instructor in wetland regulations, mitigation and wetland assessments in the state of Montana.

Riverine/Riparian Wetland Restoration

Held Tuesday, June 9, 2015 – 3:00 pm ET    

Introduction – Marla Stelk, Policy Analyst, Association of State Wetland Managers and Jeanne Christie, Association of State Wetland Managers

PRESENTERS

• Richard Weber, NRCS Wetland Team, CNTSC
• Larry Urban, Montana Department of Transportation

PowerPoint presentation is available here. 

ABSTRACT

Riverine wetlands exist in floodplains and along watercourses where the stream hydrograph dominates the wetland’s hydrology. They are classified as Riverine in the HGM classification system. The stream hydrograph provides flooding, ponding in floodplain depressions, and usually supports a floodplain water table. They provide dynamic floodwater storage, cycle sediment and nutrients, recharge aquifers, maintain stream baseflow, and many other unique functions. This webinar will provide rational distinctions between various types of Riverine wetlands. We will also present the functional distinctions between flooding, ponding, and groundwater, introduce the concepts of episaturation and endosaturation, and correlate landforms and functions with soils information. Various restoration techniques are presented, and the appropriateness of those techniques is related to specific Riverine wetland types. Techniques will cover a range of scale from stream channel treatment to large scale flood connectivity restoration.

PRESENTERS BIOS

Richard A. Weber is a Wetland Hydraulic Engineer with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Wetland Team, CNTSC in Fort Worth, Texas from 2006 to present. In this role, Rich has provided national leadership on wetland hydrology, including: Support for Wetland Restoration Program, Wetland Protection Policy, and E.O. 11990 Wetland Assessments. He leads a national training cadre for Wetland Restoration and Enhancement and Hydrology Tools for Wetland Determination courses. From 2005-2006, Rich was Design Engineer at the NRCS Nebraska State Office where he had design and A&E Contracting responsibilities for PL-566, WRP, and EQIP programs. From 1999-2005, he was a Field Engineer at the NRCS in the Scottsbluff, NE Field Office where he had design, construction, and contracting responsibilities for the Wetland Reserve Program, EQIP Irrigation and Animal Waste Management, and CTA conservation practices. From 1997-1999, Rich was an Agricultural Engineer at the NRCS in Chehalis, WA where he had design, construction, and contracting responsibilities for Conservation District funded Stream Restoration and Fish Passage projects, and EQIP program Animal Waste Projects. And from 1986-1997, he was a Watershed Project Engineer at the NRCS in Horton, KS where he performed Construction Contract Administration for PL-566 Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention projects.

Lawrence J. “Larry”Urban is the wetland mitigation specialist for the Montana Department of Transportation with state-wide responsibilities based out of Helena, Montana. He has over 30 years of experience in wetland delineations, functional assessments, monitoring and mitigation site development for both the New Jersey and Montana Department of Transportations. He has been involved in the development of a comprehensive aquatic resource mitigation program to meet wetland and stream mitigation needs for transportation projects throughout the state of Montana that has created over 55 mitigation areas ranging in size from ½ to 300 acres in size. He developed an annual monitoring program for the purposes of managing aquatic resource mitigation sites on both private and state lands to comply with federal, state and Tribal permitting requirements. Assisted in the funding, development and continued oversight of the Montana Department of Transportation’s Montana Wetland Assessment Method (MWAM) originally developed in 1989. He has also presented at a number of National and regional wetland mitigation conferences and participates in annual continuing education courses as an instructor in wetland regulations, mitigation and wetland assessments in the state of Montana.

Prairie Pothole Restoration

Held Tuesday, May 19, 2015 – 3:00 pm ET       

Introduction – Marla Stelk, Policy Analyst, Association of State Wetland Managers and Jeanne Christie, Association of State Wetland Managers

PRESENTERS

• Sue Galatowitsch, University of Minnesota
• Carter Johnson, South Dakota State University

PowerPoint presentation is available here.

ABSTRACTS

Sue Galatowitsch Abstract: Understanding how restored wetland communities deviate from natural conditions and how long those deviations persist can provide important insights into the mechanisms of recovery and improve restoration practice. This webinar focuses on restored prairie pothole wetland restorations in northern Iowa, southern Minnesota, and southeastern South Dakota. Complete floristic surveys were performed for each restored wetlands in this region for twenty years. The important barriers to the recovery of prairie pothole restoration: isolation, infrequent flooding, and invasive species, are all factors that do not self-correct over time over time and need to be addressed during planning by establishing sound practices for initial implementation and long-term vegetation management.

Carter Johnson Abstract: About half of the original wetlands in the Prairie Pothole Region have been drained, mostly for agriculture. If we are to maintain ecosystem services from these wetlands in the future, we need to rehabilitate a large number of drained wetlands in farmland. While they grow crops occasionally, most often crops are flooded out or the wetlands are too wet to plant. In most years they provide little either for farmers or for the conservation-minded public. An experiment was conducted on a working Prairie Farm from 2008-2014 to convert these wetlands to grass crops that would provide consistent income for producers either from native plant seed, hay, or grass-fed beef. Plants native to the region, well-adapted to the natural water regime, and with economic potential were planted, managed, and marketed. Results indicate that the costs of rehabilitation could be met in several years’ time, with significant profits afterwards.

PRESENTERS BIOS

Susan M. Galatowitsch is Professor and Head of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Galatowitsch teaches courses in restoration ecology and wetland ecology at the University of Minnesota. Her research focuses on restoration assessment, revegetation, management of invasive species, and climate change adaptation for wetland and riparian ecosystems. In addition to many research publications, she has authored two books, Ecological Restoration (Sinauer Associates) and Restoring Prairie Wetlands: An Ecological Approach (with Arnold van der Valk).

Dr. W. Carter Johnson is Distinguished Professor of Ecology at South Dakota State University in Brookings and Chairman of EcoSun Prairie Farms, Inc. He received a B.S. in Biology from Augustana College (Sioux Falls) in 1968 and a Ph.D. in Botany (Plant Ecology) from North Dakota State University in 1971. Dr. Johnson began his professional career as Research Associate and Research Staff Member at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (1971-77), followed by 12 years in the Department of Biology at Virginia Tech. In 1989 he became Head of the Department of Horticulture, Forestry, Landscape, and Parks at South Dakota State University, a position held until 1995. Since then, he has maintained a combined teaching and research position at SDSU.His research interests include river regulation and riparian forest ecology, climate change and prairie wetlands, seed dispersal in fragmented landscapes, paleoecology (climate reconstruction using tree rings; Holocene seed dispersal and plant migration) and multi-functional agriculture and agro-ecological restoration. His research program is strongly multi-disciplinary and inter-institutional. Dr. Johnson has published approximately 135 peer-reviewed journal articles, books and book chapters.

Vernal Pool Restoration – How to Restore the Landscape

 

Held Tuesday, April 21, 2015 – 3:00 pm ET    

Introduction – Marla Stelk, Policy Analyst, Association of State Wetland Managers and Jeanne Christie, Association of State Wetland Managers

PRESENTERS

• Mick Micacchion, Midwest Biodiversity Institute
• Christina M. Schaefer, Schaefer Ecological Solutions
• Aram J.K. Calhoun, The University of Maine

PowerPoint presentation is available here.

PRESENTERS BIOS

Mick Micacchion is a wetland ecologist at the non-profit Midwest Biodiversity Institute and is certified as a Professional Wetland Scientist by the Society of Wetland Scientists. He has a BS and MS in Wildlife Management, both from the Ohio State University, and retired in 2011 from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA). While working at Ohio EPA he was instrumental in the development of Ohio’s Wetland Water Quality Standards rules, wetland assessment tools (including the Ohio Rapid Assessment Method for Wetlands (ORAM), Vegetation Index of Biotic Integrity (VIBI), and Amphibian Index of Biotic Integrity (AmphIBI)) and their integration into Ohio’s wetland program, which has worked as a model for the country. He has monitored the physical, chemical and biological features, including the plant, amphibian and macroinvertebrate communities of hundreds of Ohio’s natural wetlands and trained hundreds of wetland professionals in the development and use of wetland monitoring and assessment methods including ORAM, VIBI and AmphIBI. He has also monitored, assessed, and reported on the condition of hundreds of Ohio wetland mitigation projects. Mick was a member of the Technical Advisory Group, which developed the methods used in the National Wetland Condition Assessment, and on Ohio’s Interagency Review Team, where he was a major contributor to the “Guidelines on Wetland Mitigation Banking in Ohio”.

Christina Schaefer is a landscape ecologist with over 30 years of experience in natural resources planning and management, conservation biology, and restoration ecology. She acquired her expertise by piloting habitat restoration programs in arid and saline environments in the Middle East and Mexico, participating in research for the Biosphere II project (a self-contained ecosystem in the Arizona desert), and working on conservation projects in Germany and Italy. While at the Environmental Research Laboratory in Tucson, Arizona, she conducted her Ph.D. research on the biology of Distichlis palmeri, a California endemic salt-tolerant plant, and its usefulness for restoration of saline environments. Over the past 20 years, Christina has gained significant expertise in vernal pool ecosystems and their restoration through hands-on vernal pool habitat restoration. Christina specializes in habitat restoration design and implementation, large-scale natural resources and watershed management planning, and the development of land management funding mechanisms. As a board member of the San Diego Habitat Conservancy (SDHC), Christina chairs the Habitat Management Committee, assists with the implementation of state-of-the-art monitoring protocols, and reviews the acquisition process for new preserves. She also serves on the Education Committee on the behalf of which she engages with educators on developing an open space curriculum for elementary schools. Christina often guest-teaches at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) and participates in the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded “Art of Science Learning” and the “San Diego Incubator for Innovation”, hosted by the Balboa Park Cultural Partnership.

Aram JK Calhoun is a Professor of Wetland Ecology in the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Conservation Biology and Director of the Ecology and Environmental Sciences Program at the University of Maine, USA. Her research focuses on forested wetlands and vernal pool ecosystems. She is particularly interested in conservation of natural resources on private lands and collaborative approaches to conserving them. Dr. Calhoun is active in working at all levels of government and with diverse stakeholders on wetland policy and conservation issues and is currently working with Maine municipalities to develop an alternative, locally driven, vernal pool regulatory tool.

 

 

 

 

Pacific Coast Wetland Restoration

Held Tuesday, March 17, 2015 – 3:00 pm ET      

Introduction – Marla Stelk, Policy Analyst, Association of State Wetland Managers and Jeanne Christie, Association of State Wetland Managers

PRESENTERS

• Charles ("Si") Simenstad, University of Washington
• John Callaway, University of San Francisco

PowerPoint presentation is available here.

ABSTRACT

Pacific Coast tidal wetlands encompass a wide range of conditions from high-salinity, Mediterranean southern California salt marshes with ~2-m tidal range to tidal wetlands in the Pacific Northwest with low salinities, often extensive tidal freshwater, and tidal ranges up to 3.5-m. There has been a long history of tidal wetland restoration across this spectrum, in large part driven by high rates of wetland impacts in southern California, San Francisco Bay, and Puget Sound, but also in smaller coastal estuaries. Early restoration evolved directly from mitigation requirements, with focus on supporting endangered species, such as Pacific salmon and Clapper Rail. More recently, large-scale regional efforts have been undertaken to improve landscape-scale restoration, with a broad consideration of estimating climate change effects on wetlands. In addition to climate change issues, urbanization is a major constraint for restoration planning on the Pacific Coast. We will review lessons from a range of case studies across the region, considering issues of scale, evaluation of success, and restoration constraints. If we have a consensus take-home message, it is that our current ad hoc, opportunistic approach to tidal wetland restoration will need to be replaced by a more watershed, ecosystem process-based planning process.

PRESENTERS BIOS

Charles (“Si”) Simenstad is a Research Professor in the University of Washington’s School of Aquatic and Fishery Science, where he coordinates the Wetland Ecosystem Team. Prof. Simenstad is an estuarine and coastal marine ecologist who has studied the organization and function of estuarine and coastal marine ecosystems throughout Puget Sound, Washington, Oregon and California coasts, and Alaska for over forty years. Much of this research has focused on the functional role of estuarine and coastal wetlands supporting juvenile Pacific salmon and other fish and wildlife, and the associated ecological processes and community dynamics that are responsible for enhancing their production and life history diversity. His research interests focus on: ecosystem-, community- and habitat-level interactions, with emphasis on predator-prey relationships; sources, organization and flow of organic matter through food webs; estuarine ecology of juvenile Pacific salmon; and, landscape-scale interaction between estuarine circulation and ecological processes. Recent research has integrated such ecosystem interactions with applied issues such as evaluating and planning restoration and rehabilitation of estuarine and coastal wetlands at ecosystem and landscape scales.

Prof. Simenstad is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Co-Editor-in-Chief for Estuaries and Coasts, and Associate Editor for San Francisco Estuary & Watershed Science and the Encyclopedia of Puget Sound. He also serves on the Chief of the US Army Corps of Engineers Environmental Advisory Board, and was the 2009 recipient of the NOAA-AFS Nancy Foster Award for Habitat Conservation. He has authored or co-authored over 80 peer-reviewed scientific papers, 20 book and proceedings chapters, ~35 miscellaneous publications and >125 workshop proceedings and technical reports. He has recently served as the co-editor for the 11-chapter, Vol. 1-Classification of Estuarine and Nearshore Coastal Ecosystems in Elsevier’s recently published, comprehensive Treatise on Estuarine and Coastal Science. He has served as academic advisor for 27 M.S./Ph.D. graduate students, and served on an additional ~40 graduate student committees.

Si’s recent research includes: NOAA-NWFSC studies of juvenile salmon rearing in wetlands and restoring shallow-water ecosystems of the Columbia River estuary; developing and testing an estuarine ecosystem classification system for the Columbia River estuary, and employing it to delineate juvenile Pacific salmon habitat through the estuary gradient; an interdisciplinary study of wetland restoration processes at Liberty Island in the Sacramento River delta; investigating the trophic responses of juvenile salmon and steelhead during intermittent closing of the Russian River (California) estuary; evaluating the contribution of estuarine rearing of juvenile salmon to life history diversity in Kachemak Bay and southeastern Cook Inlet, Alaska; and through 2012 served as Chair of the Nearshore Science Team (NST) of the Puget Sound Nearshore Ecosystem Research Program (PSNERP) providing scientific guidance for the (US Army Corps of Engineers, General Investigation) restoration planning of estuarine and nearshore ecosystems in Puget Sound.

Si holds a B.S. (1969) and M.S. (1971) from the School of Fisheries at the University of Washington.

John Callaway is a Professor in the Department of Environmental Science at the University of San Francisco, where he also directs the Master's program in Environmental Management. Prior to this, he was the Associate Director of the Pacific Estuarine Research Laboratory at San Diego State University. He teaches courses in wetland ecology and restoration ecology at USF, and he conducts research on wetland restoration, climate change effects on tidal wetlands, and wetland carbon dynamics. John has published over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. His most recent project was on carbon sequestration in tidal wetlands in San Francisco Bay. In 2013, he was awarded USF’s Distinguished Research Award. John also serves on a number of advisory panels on wetland restoration and management, including in Louisiana, southern California, and the San Francisco Bay area. Previously, he was the editor of Madroño and served on the board of editors of Wetlands, and Ecological Applications; currently he is an associate editor for Estuaries and Coasts. John received a B.S. in Biology from UC Berkeley, an M.S. in Biology from San Francisco State University, and a Ph.D. in Oceanography and Coastal Sciences from Louisiana State University.

 

 Playa and Rainwater Basin Restoration

Held Tuesday, February 17, 2015 – 3:00 pm ET      

Introduction – Marla Stelk, Policy Analyst, Association of State Wetland Managers and Jeanne Christie, Association of State Wetland Managers

PRESENTERS

• Rich Weber, NRCS Wetland Team, CNTSC
• Ted LaGrange, Nebraska Game & Parks Commission

PowerPoint presentation is available here.

ABSTRACT

Playa wetlands are one of the most abundant wetland types on the Great Plains. They are shallow, mostly temporarily flooded, depressional wetlands, and most have no surface outlet and are perched above groundwater by a clay layer. Many playas are embedded in agricultural fields, and have been highly impacted by drainage attempts, watershed modifications, and/or culturally-accelerated sediment. We will discuss how to assess these impacts and the techniques that can be used to restore playas and their associated watersheds. We will also discuss the importance of managing playas after their restoration.

PRESENTERS BIOS

Richard A. Weber is a Wetland Hydraulic Engineer with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Wetland Team, CNTSC in Fort Worth, Texas from 2006 to present. In this role, Rich has provided national leadership on wetland hydrology, including: Support for Wetland Restoration Program, Wetland Protection Policy, and E.O. 11990 Wetland Assessments. He leads a national training cadre for Wetland Restoration and Enhancement and Hydrology Tools for Wetland Determination courses. From 2005-2006, Rich was Design Engineer at the NRCS Nebraska State Office where he had design and A&E Contracting responsibilities for PL-566, WRP, and EQIP programs. From 1999-2005, he was a Field Engineer at the NRCS in the Scottsbluff, NE Field Office where he had design, construction, and contracting responsibilities for the Wetland Reserve Program, EQIP Irrigation and Animal Waste Management, and CTA conservation practices. From 1997-1999, Rich was an Agricultural Engineer at the NRCS in Chehalis, WA where he had design, construction, and contracting responsibilities for Conservation District funded Stream Restoration and Fish Passage projects, and EQIP program Animal Waste Projects. And from 1986-1997, he was a Watershed Project Engineer at the NRCS in Horton, KS where he performed Construction Contract Administration for PL-566 Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention projects.

Ted LaGrange is an Iowa native, Ted moved to Nebraska in 1993 to work as the Wetland Program Manager for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. As Wetland Program Manager he works on a wide variety of wetland issues throughout the state including private land restoration programs, public lands management, resource advocacy and outreach. Prior to moving to Nebraska, he worked for 8 years as a Waterfowl Research Technician for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources in Clear Lake. Stationed in northern Iowa, he worked with the prairie pothole restoration program, especially evaluation of plant and waterfowl response to wetland restoration. Ted received B.S. and M.S. degrees in wildlife biology from Iowa State University. During his college years he spent summers working on refuges in Oregon and New York for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, working on a muskrat ecology study on the Upper Mississippi River, and working on the Marsh Ecology Research Project for Delta Waterfowl and Wetlands Research Station in Manitoba. His professional interests are in prairie wetlands and waterfowl/waterbird ecology.

Temperate and Tropical/subtropical Seagrass Restoration: challenges for the 21st century

 

Held January 20, 2015 – 3:00 pm ET      

Introduction – Marla Stelk, Policy Analyst, Association of State Wetland Managers and Jeanne Christie, Association of State Wetland Managers

PRESENTERS

• Robin Lewis, Lewis Environmental Services, Inc. & Coastal Resource Group, Inc.
• Mark Fonseca, CSA Ocean Sciences

PowerPoint presentation is available here. 

ABSTRACT

This presentation reviews the status of the science for seagrass restoration and mitigation with a worldwide perspective. The presentation will include review of current challenges, such as understanding the importance of disturbance in site selection and stability, applying economic evaluation, applying landscape principles and management of species with diverse life histories. Strategies for the future engagement will be outlined including the need for more site-specific training and the addressing the current general lack of appreciation and application of the historical science base.

PRESENTERS BIOS

Roy R. “Robin” Lewis, III is President of Lewis Environmental Services, Inc., and Coastal Resources Group, Inc., a not-for-profit scientific and educational organization, both with offices in Valrico, Florida, and Salt Springs, Florida. He is a Professional Wetland Scientist certified by the Society of Wetland Scientists, and a certified Senior Ecologist with the Ecological Society of America. He has forty years of experience in the design and construction of wetlands with over 200 completed and successful projects in the USA and overseas. He has recently designed, permitted, and supervised initial construction of a 400 ha mangrove restoration project at the Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve near Marco Island, and a 7,000 ha project in Indonesia. He has also worked and taught wetland restoration in twenty-two foreign countries including Jamaica, Bonaire, the Bahama Islands, Cuba, Costa Rica, Barbados, Guyana, Nigeria, Mexico, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Hong Kong. He specializes in the ecological monitoring, management and restoration of mangrove forests and seagrass meadows and has over 125 professional publications in these and other wetland subject areas.

Mark Fonseca is the Science Director for CSA Ocean Sciences, a marine environmental consulting firm headquartered in Stuart, Florida and with numerous overseas branch offices. Besides ensuring scientific quality for CSA, he conducts applied research with a focus on ecosystem restoration and management, especially with seagrasses. In 2012 he retired from NOAA where he spent over 30 years as a research ecologist and research branch chief. He has authored or co-authored over 80 peer-reviewed papers and dozens of technical reports on the ecology, conservation and mitigation of seagrass ecosystems. In 1998 he also senior authored “Guidelines for the conservation and restoration of seagrasses in the United States and Adjacent Waters”, which remains a leading national and international treatise on the subject. He holds a B.Sc. in Resource Development from the University of Rhode Island, a M.Sc. in Environmental Sciences from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. in Integrative Biology from the University of California, Berkeley.

View Past Improving Wetland Restoration Success Webinars Here

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Atlantic Coast Coastal Marshes and Mangrove Restoration

Held December 9, 2014 – 3:00 pm eastern
     

INTRODUCTION

• Marla Stelk, Policy Analyst, Association of State Wetland Managers [POWERPOINT PRESENTATION]

PRESENTERS

• Robin Lewis, Lewis Environmental Services, Inc. & Coastal Resource Group, Inc.
• John Teal, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (Scientist Emeritus)
• Joseph Shisler, ARCADIS
• Jim Turek, NOAA Fisheries Restoration Center  

PowerPoint presentation is available here.

Subtitle: Restoration and Creation of Atlantic Coast Tidal Marshes and Mangrove Forests: It Looks Easy But It is Not

ABSTRACT

Intertidal plant communities along the U.S. Atlantic coasts include a diverse set of tidal wetlands including regularly flooded emergent salt and brackish marshes, tidal freshwater marshes and swamps, irregularly flooded marsh and scrub-shrub wetlands, and mangrove forests in subtropical and tropical portions of Florida, and small areas in Louisiana and Texas.

These tidal wetland habitats contribute tremendous ecological and social benefits, such as: fish and invertebrate habitats; nesting and feeding areas for birds and other wildlife; exportation of plant material to detritus-based food webs; denitrification and carbon cycling; shoreline stabilization; and resiliency to storms and surge events. These resources have unfortunately undergone substantial losses due to land development practices such as dredging and fillingof these areas for nearly 400 years. Hydrologic restrictions and modifications in the form of diking, roadway and utility construction, ditching, and excessive groundwater withdrawals resulting in regional land subsidence have also taken their toll. Accelerating sea level rise, warming air and water temperatures, and more frequent and intense storm events associated with climate change collectively present ominous and challenging conditions for the future sustainability and functioning of Atlantic coastal wetlands.

Based upon historical reviews of the key elements in successfully restoring or creating thesecoastal wetland types, reason suggests that tidal wetlands should be more easily restored due to a predictable tidal cycle and hydrology. This condition is in contrast to freshwater marshes and forested wetlands, where the supporting hydrology is often less predictable, or submerged aquatic habitats including seagrasses, where water quality is a key limiting factor. In fact, in spite of multiple decades of attempts at restoration, and multiple guidance documents, many of these efforts fail.

The primary cause of these failures is the lack of understanding of the very limited range of tidal inundation that these plant communities can tolerate, and a tendency to see planting of marsh and mangrove vegetation as enough to solve this problem. It is not. Very careful attention to the hydrologic tolerances and requirements for each specific target plant species is essential, and in many cases, no planting of vegetation is necessary as volunteer plants can quickly establish with proximate seed sources and in properly designed and constructed restoration sites. Planting of vegetation may be a high priority or essential in some cases where seed banks are lacking and/or higher wave energy is expected, but plants alone may not control shore erosion where high fetch and certain landscape features prevail. Again, careful attention to the ability of plants alone to control coastal erosion is essential but often overlooked. The application of lessons learned from decades of efforts and documentation of both successes and failures is lacking. We provide guidance to the best methods and the literature sources to find out more about what works and what does not.

BIOS

Roy R. "Robin" Lewis, III is President of Lewis Environmental Services, Inc., and Coastal Resources Group, Inc., a not-for-profit scientific and educational organization, both with offices in Valrico, Florida, and Salt Springs, Florida. He is a Professional Wetland Scientist certified by the Society of Wetland Scientists, certified Senior Ecologist with the Ecological Society of America and a member of the IUCN SSC Mangrove Specialist Group. He has forty years of experience in the design and construction of wetlands with over 200 completed and successful projects in the USA and overseas. He has recently designed, permitted, and supervised initial construction of a 400 ha mangrove restoration project at the Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve near Marco Island, and a 7,000 ha project in Indonesia.  He has also worked and taught wetland restoration in twenty-two foreign countries including Jamaica, Bonaire, the Bahama Islands, Cuba, Costa Rica, Barbados, Guyana, Nigeria, Mexico, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Hong Kong. He specializes in the ecological monitoring, management and restoration of mangrove forests and seagrass meadows and has over 125 professional publications in these and other wetland subject areas.

John Teal's professional career began in the early 1950’s with his Harvard Ph.D. thesis on the trophic relationships in a tiny cold spring in Massachusetts.  He then studied salt marshes at University of Georgia Marine Institute at Sapelo Island.  After four years, he went to Dalhousie University in Halifax at the new oceanography establishment in eastern Canada.  Dr.Teal joined Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 1961 and has been Scientist Emeritus since 1995. In addition to research on coastal wetlands he has worked on physiology of large, warm blooded fishes, bird migration over the oceans, oil pollution, and wastewater treatment by wetlands.  He has been involved since 1993 in a salt marsh restoration project in Delaware Bay that encompasses 32 square miles.  He served on the Louisiana Coastal Area (LCA) scientific advisory committee for the Mississippi delta.  Dr. Teal has served on National Academy committees, Federal advisory committees, editorial boards of scientific journals, published in both the scientific and popular literature, and served on local committees.  Always interested in the willingness and/or unwillingness of professional scientists to take part in public policy decisions, Dr. Teal has served on the board of the Conservation Law Foundation of New England since 1978 and is now Trustee Emeritus.  He was president of the Society of Wetland Scientists in 1998-9.

Joseph Shisler is a Principal Ecologist at ARCADIS in Cranbury, NJ. A nationally recognized wetlands expert, he received is PhD from Rutgers University in 1975 where he studied in the impacts of alterations to salt marshes.  He was at Rutgers University for more than 10 years directing research on wetlands, wildlife use, stormwater management, wetland mitigation, and coastal zone management issues. He has more than 42 years of experience conducting wetland evaluations and restoration projects and has served as a consultant to various state, federal, and international agencies concerning these issues. The New Jersey Wildlife Society recognized his work and presented him with the 1980 Conservationist of the Year award. Governor Kean appointed him chairperson of the New Jersey Wetlands Mitigation Council in 1989 for which he served for 9 years. He has been a consultant for over 20 years in a salt marsh restoration project in Delaware Bay that encompasses 32 square miles. He is a certified Senior Ecologist by the Ecological Society of America and has over 100 professional publications and presentations on wetland subjects.

James Turek is a restoration ecologist with the NOAA Fisheries Restoration Center (RC) stationed at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center Lab in Narragansett, RI.  Jim has worked with the RC for more than 15 years, managing or providing technical assistance on a variety of coastal habitat restoration projects primarily in Narragansett Bay, Long Island Sound, Buzzards Bay and their watersheds. Much of his work is carried out through NOAA’s Community-Based Restoration Program (CRP) and the Damage Assessment, Remediation and Restoration Program (DARRP) to restore natural resource damage injuries resulting from oil spills and other contaminant releases.  His expertise includes planning, designing, cost estimating, implementing and monitoring tidal marsh and freshwater wetland restorations, and dam removals, nature-like fishways and other river barrier removal projects leading to diadromous fish passage and population restoration. Prior to joining the RC, Mr. Turek worked as an environmental consultant for 13 years with firms in Maryland and Rhode Island, where he led or participated in more than 450 wetland delineations, planning studies, impact assessments, and wetland mitigation projects. He also spent 3 years as a fishery biologist at the former NOAA Fisheries Lab in Oxford, Maryland, where his work included evaluating Chesapeake Bay tidal marsh restoration performance. Jim holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Zoology and minor in Geological Sciences from the University of Maine at Orono, and a Master’s Degree in Marine Affairs from the University of Rhode Island.

How to Prepare a Good Wetland Restoration Plan

Held November 4, 2014 – 3:00 pm eastern

 

INTRODUCTION

• Marla Stelk, Policy Analyst, Association of State Wetland Managers [POWERPOINT PRESENTATION]

PRESENTERS 

• Richard Weber, NRCS Wetland Team, CNTSC
• Tom Harcarik, Ohio EPA, Division of Environmental & Financial Assistance
• john Teal, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (Scientist Emeritus)
• Lisa Cowan, Professional Landscape Architect, Studioverde
• Mick Micacchion, Midwest Biodiversity Institute

PowerPoint presentation is available here.

ABSTRACT

Wetland Restoration projects often provide less than desirable results.  The reasons for this are many and varied.  However, the opportunity for success is greatly increased by following basic planning procedures.  In all cases, planning requires an inventory of the hydrologic and landscape inputs to the project.  Also required is a clear set of objectives that takes these inputs into account.  Planning includes the efforts needed for public participation, permitting, design of restoration elements, construction contracting and management, and post implementation monitoring, maintenance and management.  Restoration projects vary widely between landscapes.  They also vary widely by objectives that include ecosystem restoration, non-point source pollution treatment, waterfowl habitat, flood attenuation, etc.  However, all wetlands rest on a soil substrate, and have a water budget that includes dominant water sources.  All also support unique plant communities that interact with soil, water, and watershed inputs to provide wetland functions.  Project planning provides the inventory, analysis, and objective setting needed to implement projects that make use of these parameters. 

BIOS

Richard A. Weber is a Wetland Hydraulic Engineer with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Wetland Team, CNTSC in Fort Worth, Texas from 2006 to present. In this role, Rich has provided national leadership on wetland hydrology, including:  Support for Wetland Restoration Program, Wetland Protection Policy, and E.O. 11990 Wetland Assessments.  He leads a national training cadre for Wetland Restoration and Enhancement and Hydrology Tools for Wetland Determination courses.  From 2005-2006, Rich was Design Engineer at the NRCS Nebraska State Office  where he had design and A&E Contracting responsibilities for PL-566, WRP, and EQIP programs. From 1999-2005, he was a Field Engineer at the NRCS in the Scottsbluff, NE Field Office where he had design, construction, and contracting responsibilities for the Wetland Reserve Program, EQIP Irrigation and Animal Waste Management, and CTA conservation practices. From 1997-1999, Rich was an Agricultural Engineer at the NRCS in Chehalis, WA where he had design, construction, and contracting responsibilities for Conservation District funded Stream Restoration and Fish Passage projects, and EQIP program Animal Waste Projects. And from 1986-1997, he was a Watershed Project Engineer at the NRCS in Horton, KS  where he performed  Construction Contract Administration for PL-566 Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention projects.

Tom Harcarik is an environmental planner with Ohio EPA’s Division of Environmental and Financial Assistance where he reviews water and wastewater infrastructure projects seeking financing under the State Revolving Fund (SRF) programs.  Tom evaluates environmental impacts, including floodplains, threatened and endangered species, historic properties, and streams and wetlands, under the NEPA-like State Environmental Review Process. He also evaluates stream and wetland restoration and protection projects seeking funding through Ohio EPA’s Water Resource Restoration Sponsor Program.  Tom also assists the Ohio Power Siting Board by evaluating impacts to aquatic resources resulting from proposed power plants, transmission lines, and wind power projects. 

Tom started his career at Ohio EPA as a summer intern where he was a “bug picker” and “fish kicker.” Tom has since worked for Ohio EPA for over 29 years, including 17 years in the 401 Water Quality Certification program and Wetland Ecology Group.  Additionally, Tom has worked in the enforcement sections for Ohio EPA’s solid waste and unregulated hazardous waste programs, where he reviewed cases and served as a liaison to the Attorney General’s Office.   Tom received his Bachelors of Science in Conservation, with an area of specialization in aquatic ecology, from Kent State University.  Tom is an avid backpacker, and lives by the motto, “A bad day in the field always beats a good day in the office!”   

John Teal's professional career began in the early 1950’s with his Harvard Ph.D. thesis on the trophic relationships in a tiny cold spring in Massachusetts.  He then studied salt marshes at University of Georgia Marine Institute at Sapelo Island.  After four years, he went to Dalhousie University in Halifax at the new oceanography establishment in eastern Canada.  Dr.Teal joined Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 1961 and has been Scientist Emeritus since 1995. In addition to research on coastal wetlands he has worked on physiology of large, warm blooded fishes, bird migration over the oceans, oil pollution, and wastewater treatment by wetlands.  He has been involved since 1993 in a salt marsh restoration project in Delaware Bay that encompasses 32 square miles.  He served on the Louisiana Coastal Area (LCA) scientific advisory committee for the Mississippi delta.  Dr. Teal has served on National Academy committees, Federal advisory committees, editorial boards of scientific journals, published in both the scientific and popular literature, and served on local committees.  Always interested in the willingness and/or unwillingness of professional scientists to take part in public policy decisions, Dr. Teal has served on the board of the Conservation Law Foundation of New England since 1978 and is now Trustee Emeritus.  He was president of the Society of Wetland Scientists in 1998-9.

Lisa Cowan is Principal at Studioverde - a collaborative of landscape architects and practitioners in the fields of resource economics, ecology, horticulture and public art, working together to create high performance landscapes.  Lisa’s work exemplifies a lifelong interest in the restoration of natural systems and community engagement in the natural world.  She has expertise in ecology-based planning, design, low impact construction and land management and was the lead landscape architect on over thirty successful wetland and riparian creation and restoration projects.  Lisa is a Co-Chair of the American Society of Landscape Architect’s Sustainable Design and Development (SDD) Professional Practice group and is the editor for the SDD blog for the Field. Lisa has also been active in public outreach and education on the Sustainable Sites Initiative rating system (SITES) since 2009.  Lisa will be teaming with Marla Stelk, ASWM on a talk about the status of wetland restoration and role of landscape architects as an integrated team member at the ASLA 2014 Annual conference in Denver, Colorado this November. 

Mick Micacchion is a wetland ecologist at the non-profit Midwest Biodiversity Institute and is certified as a Professional Wetland Scientist by the Society of Wetland Scientists. He has a BS and MS in Wildlife Management, both from the Ohio State University, and retired in 2011 from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA). While working at Ohio EPA he was instrumental in the development of Ohio’s Wetland Water Quality Standards rules, wetland assessment tools (including the Ohio Rapid Assessment Method for Wetlands (ORAM), Vegetation Index of Biotic Integrity (VIBI), and Amphibian Index of Biotic Integrity (AmphIBI)) and their integration into Ohio’s wetland program, which has worked as a model for the country. He has monitored the physical, chemical and biological features, including the plant, amphibian and macroinvertebrate communities of hundreds of Ohio’s natural wetlands and trained hundreds of wetland professionals in the development and use of wetland monitoring and assessment methods including ORAM, VIBI and AmphIBI. He has also monitored, assessed, and reported on the condition of hundreds of Ohio wetland mitigation projects. Mick was a member of the Technical Advisory Group, which developed the methods used in the National Wetland Condition Assessment, and on Ohio’s Interagency Review Team, where he was a major contributor to the “Guidelines on Wetland Mitigation Banking in Ohio”. 

 

A History of Wetland Drainage: How They Pulled the Plug

Held October 2, 2014 – 3:00 pm eastern  

    

INTRODUCTION

• Marla Stelk, Policy Analyst, Association of State Wetland Managers  [POWERPOINT PRESENTATION]

PRESENTER

• Tom Biebighauser, Wetland Restoration and Training

PowerPoint presentation is available here. 

ABSTRACT

The main reason so many wetland projects are unsuccessful is that the builder has failed to disable historic drainage structures.  People have been burying rock, wood, brick, clay, concrete, and plastic pipe in the ground to dry wetlands since Europeans began cultivating North America.  This presentation will show you exactly how wetlands were drained and filled, and how you can spot the ghost of a wetland drained over 300-years ago.

BIOS

Tom Biebighauser has restored over 1,650 wetlands in 20-States and 2-Canadian Provinces. He has studied wetland drainage for over 30-years, working with senior contractors who spent their lives destroying wetlands.  Tom teaches practical, hands-on workshops across North America where participants learn about wetland restoration by becoming involved in the design and construction of naturally appearing and functioning wetlands.  He has written 3-books about wetland restoration, and instructs online college courses about how to restore wetlands.  Please visit Wetland Restoration and Training for information about the techniques he is using, and courses that are available.

 

 How Restoration Outcomes are Described, Judged and Explained

Held September 9, 2014 – 3:00 pm eastern    

INTRODUCTION

• Marla Stelk, Policy Analyst, Association of State Wetland Managers  [POWERPOINT PRESENTATION]

PRESENTERS

How Restoration Outcomes are Described, Judged and Explained – Contributors: Joy Zedler, Aldo Leopold Chair of Restoration Ecology, University of Wisconsin; Robin Lewis, Lewis Environmental Services, Inc. & Coastal Resource Group, Inc.; Richard Weber, NRCS Wetland Team, CNTSC; Bruce Pruitt, USACE Engineer Research & Development Center; Larry Urban, Montana Department of Transportation

PowerPoint presentation is available here.

BIOS

Joy Zedler is a Professor of Botany at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Aldo Leopold Professor of Restoration Ecology and Research Director at the Arboretum. Her research and writings concern wetlands, restoration, and conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services; she promotes Adaptive Restoration, mentors students, and helps edit the journal, Restoration Ecology. She advises many organizations on environmental issues and restoration projects. She is a Fellow of the Society of Wetland Scientists and a Fellow of the Ecological Society of America, in recognition of her research and service.

Bruce Pruitt, PhD, PH, PWS is a Research Ecologist with the Engineer Research and Development Center, Vicksburg, MS (USACE). He is a Professional Hydrologist and Wetland Scientist with over thirty cumulative years of professional level work experience in both private and public sectors. Bruce has lead studies related to ecology, hydrology, and water quality including sedimentology on a diversity of aquatic ecosystems including streams, wetlands, lakes, estuaries, and salt marshes. He has conducted intensive investigations and developed functional assessment models applicable to the Western Kentucky Coalfields, East Everglades, Sharks River Slough, and the Florida Keys. He received a Bronze Metal from USEPA for the wetland functional assessment model he developed and tested for the Florida Keys which is still in use today. Bruce has provided hydrogeomorphic design, construction oversight, and monitoring on several stream, wetland and salt marsh restoration projects. Bruce has also developed and published regional hydraulic rating curves for western Kentucky and the Piedmont of Georgia applicable to functional assessment and stream restoration. Since 1989, Bruce has served as an instructor in numerous applied training courses including federal wetland delineation, functional assessment, and fluvial geomorphology. 

Roy R. "Robin" Lewis, III is President of Lewis Environmental Services, Inc., and Coastal Resources Group, Inc., a not-for-profit scientific and educational organization, both with offices in Valrico, Florida, and Salt Springs, Florida. He is a Professional Wetland Scientist certified by the Society of Wetland Scientists, and a certified Senior Ecologist with the Ecological Society of America. He has forty years of experience in the design and construction of wetlands with over 200 completed and successful projects in the USA and overseas. He has recently designed, permitted, and supervised initial construction of a 400 ha mangrove restoration project at the Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve near Marco Island, and a 7,000 ha project in Indonesia.  He has also worked and taught wetland restoration in twenty-two foreign countries including Jamaica, Bonaire, the Bahama Islands, Cuba, Costa Rica, Barbados, Guyana, Nigeria, Mexico, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Hong Kong. He specializes in the ecological monitoring, management and restoration of mangrove forests and seagrass meadows and has over 125 professional publications in these and other wetland subject areas.

Lawrence J. “Larry”Urban is the wetland mitigation specialist for the Montana Department of Transportation with state-wide responsibilities based out of Helena, Montana.  He has over 30 years of experience in wetland delineations, functional assessments, monitoring and mitigation site development for both the New Jersey and Montana Department of Transportations.  He has been involved in the development of a comprehensive aquatic resource mitigation program to meet wetland and stream mitigation needs for transportation projects throughout the state of Montana that has created over 55 mitigation areas ranging in size from ½ to 300 acres in size.  He developed an annual monitoring program for the purposes of managing aquatic resource mitigation sites on both private and state lands to comply with federal, state and Tribal permitting requirements.  Assisted in the funding, development and continued oversight of the Montana Department of Transportation’s Montana Wetland Assessment Method (MWAM) originally developed in 1989.  He has also presented at a number of National and regional wetland mitigation conferences, and participates in annual continuing education courses as an instructor in wetland regulations, mitigation and wetland assessments in the state of Montana.

Richard A. Weber, P.E.  is a Wetland Hydraulic Engineer with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Wetland Team, CNTSC in Fort Worth, Texas from 2006 to present. In this role, Rich has provided national leadership on wetland hydrology, including:  Support for Wetland Restoration Program, Wetland Protection Policy, and E.O. 11990 Wetland Assessments.  He leads a national training cadre for Wetland Restoration and Enhancement and Hydrology Tools for Wetland Determination courses.  From 2005-2006, Rich was Design Engineer at the NRCS Nebraska State Office  where he had design and A&E Contracting responsibilities for PL-566, WRP, and EQIP programs. From 1999-2005, he was a Field Engineer at the NRCS in the Scottsbluff, NE Field Office  where he had design, construction, and contracting responsibilities for the Wetland Reserve Program, EQIP Irrigation and Animal Waste Management, and CTA conservation practices. From 1997-1999, Rich was an  Agricultural Engineer at  the NRCS in Chehalis, WA where he had design, construction, and contracting responsibilities for Conservation District funded Stream Restoration and Fish Passage projects, and EQIP program Animal Waste Projects. And from 1986-1997, he was a Watershed Project Engineer at the NRCS in Horton, KS  where he performed  Construction Contract Administration for PL-566 Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention projects.  

View Past Improving Wetland Restoration Success Webinars Here

2016			2015

View a List of Improving Wetland Restoration Success Webinar Recordings Here

Long-term Management & Legal Protections for Voluntary Restoration

Held Thursday, November 17, 2016 - 3:00 p.m. ET

INTRODUCTION

• Marla Stelk, Policy Analyst, Association of State Wetland Managers and Jeanne Christie, Association of State Wetland Managers [POWERPOINT PRESENTATION]

PRESENTERS

• Ellen Fred, Esq., Conservation Partners [POWERPOINT PRESENTATION]
• Ted LaGrange, Nebraska Game & Parks Commission [POWERPOINT PRESENTATION]
• Jeff Williams, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service [POWERPOINT PRESENTATION]
• Andrew James, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
  [POWERPOINT PRESENTATION]

ABSTRACTS

Abstract: Ellen Fred, Esq., Conservation Partners

This presentation will discuss some of the various legal instruments available to ensure long-term protections for wetlands. A conservation easement is a legal tool used to ensure that property remains in its natural and ecological condition in perpetuity. Easements are typically crafted as negative covenants—i.e., telling a landowner what actions she cannot undertake—but in certain circumstances they can be tailored to include certain affirmative obligations, including restoration. Easements are often used as a means to protect the public and private investment in restoration projects and can also incorporate management plans and other land-use mechanisms to ensure that the long-term management of the property is conducted in a manner that protects and enhances the restored features of a property.

Abstract: Ted LaGrange, Nebraska Game & Parks Commission

There are a number of options available to address voluntary wetland restoration, including on private lands. Some examples that I will briefly touch on include: technical assistance, short-term agreements, long-term agreements, conservation easements, and fee-title ownership. Regardless of the option used to enable the wetland restoration, it is extremely important to plan for and to implement the long-term management needed to sustain the wetland. I will discuss why management is so important and some of the ways to accomplish the management needed.

Abstract: Jeff Williams, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and Andrew James, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service

Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP): Building partnerships with landowners to voluntarily protect and restore wetlands with the Wetland Reserve Easement (WRE) component.

ACEP-WRE provides opportunities for landowners (including tribes) to restore, restore, and enhance wetlands. The USA acquires either 30 year or perpetual conservation easements using a standard template conservation easement. NRCS will pay either up to 75% of estimated costs of restoration for 30 year easements or up to 100% of restoration costs for perpetual easements. Landowners must meet specific eligibility criteria. Proposed wetland parcels must meet both legal and technical criteria to be eligible for WRE. Policy describes the ranking process by which proposed parcels compete on a state-wide basis. Detailed guidance is provided for the acquisition process. A preliminary and final restoration plan is created in collaboration with the landowner that meets the goals and objectives of the necessary restoration while meeting Agency standards and specifications. Long term management, operation and maintenance, compatible uses, annual monitoring, as well as violations and enforcement procedures are addressed in policy.

BIOS

Ellen Fred has been practicing land conservation law for 13 years. Ellen serves clients on all aspects of land conservation law, including drafting and customizing conservation easements and related documents, analyzing the state and federal income, gift, and estate tax implications of employing various conservation approaches, negotiating with landowners, tax-exempt organizations, and governmental agencies, and managing mitigation projects. Ms. Fred is a member of the State Bar of California and is admitted to appear before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Prior to establishing her solo practice, Ms. Fred was with the San Francisco law firm of Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass, LLP, where she practiced for four years in its land conservation section. Ms. Fred has published various articles on land conservation issues in the Hastings Law Journal and The Back Forty Journal of Land Conservation Law and has presented at numerous conferences on land conservation topics. She graduated with high honors and high distinction in Russian and Eastern European Studies from the University of Michigan in 1993 and earned her law degree, summa cum laude, from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, where she was elected to the Order of the Coif and the Thurston Society.

Ted LaGrange
An Iowa native, Ted moved to Nebraska in 1993 to work as the Wetland Program Manager for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. As Wetland Program Manager he works on a wide variety of wetland issues throughout the state including private land restoration programs, public lands management, resource advocacy and outreach. Prior to moving to Nebraska, he worked for 8 years as a Waterfowl Research Technician for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources in Clear Lake. Stationed in northern Iowa, he worked with the prairie pothole restoration program, especially evaluation of plant and waterfowl response to wetland restoration. Ted received B.S. and M.S. degrees in wildlife biology from Iowa State University. During his college years he spent summers working on refuges in Oregon and New York for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, working on a muskrat ecology study on the Upper Mississippi River, and working on the Marsh Ecology Research Project for Delta Waterfowl and Wetlands Research Station in Manitoba. His professional interests are in prairie wetlands and waterfowl/waterbird ecology.

Jeff Williams is employed by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) as a Wetland Easement Specialist and Healthy Forest Reserve Program (HFRP) Manager in Washington, DC. He has previously served as an easement Specialist for Utah NRCS working with local and national partners implementing both repealed conservation easement programs for the Wetland Reserve Program (WRP), Grasslands Reserve Program (GRP), and Farm and Ranchland Protection Program (FRPP) as well as the new conservation easement programs in ACEP. He has worked for the Bureau of Land Management, US Forest Service, and Department of Army. He has a BS in Range Science and MA in Economics from Utah State University.

Andrew James currently serves as the National Program Manager for the Wetlands Reserve Easement (WRE) component of the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP) for USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Washington, D.C. Before moving to Washington, D.C. in 2014, Andrew served as the Conservation Easement Program Coordinator for Louisiana NRCS (2010 – 2014) and Arkansas NRCS (2006 – 2010). Prior to his employment with NRCS, Andrew served as the State Waterfowl Biologists for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission in Little Rock, AR from 2002 - 2006. He earned a BS in Wildlife Conservation from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, LA and an MS in Wildlife Biology from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, AR.  

 

 

 

Not Lost in Translation: How to Select the Right Wetland Restoration Team

Held Tuesday, October 18, 2016 - 3:00 p.m. ET

INTRODUCTION

• Marla Stelk, Policy Analyst, Association of State Wetland Managers and Jeanne Christie, Association of State Wetland Managers

PRESENTERS

• Lisa Cowan, PLA, ASLA, Principal, Studioverde
• John Bourgeois, Executive Project Manager, South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project
• Matt Schweisberg, Principal, Wetland Strategies and Solutions, LLC

PowerPoint presentations available here.

ABSTRACT

Wetland restoration has a spotty history of success. There are numerous reasons that restoration projects fail to achieve their full range of objectives. From initial planning to design to construction to follow-up monitoring, there are several junctures where things may not go smoothly. In fact, there are key points where projects may deteriorate or fall apart. One principal reason can be the team working on the project. Have you wondered about the expertise and capabilities necessary to make a wetland restoration team operate effectively, efficiently, and successfully? We have too. Join our group of experts to learn about the various ingredients that are needed to form a top-notch wetland restoration team. This webinar will include a thorough discussion of the potential skill sets to include in your team. The discussion will cover key professional expertise, important personality traits, and requisite communication abilities.

BIOS

Lisa Cowan, is Principal at Studioverde - a collaborative of landscape architects and practitioners specializing in ecological restoration, sustainable design and Sustainable Sites Initiative certification. Lisa’s work exemplifies a lifelong interest in the restoration of natural systems and community engagement in the natural world. She has expertise in design and construction plans, low impact construction methodologies and monitoring and was the lead landscape architect on over 30 successful wetland and riparian restoration projects. Lisa’s work in wetland restoration and creation was featured in Landscape Architecture Magazine in 2015. Lisa teamed with Marla Stelk, ASWM on a talk about wetland restoration and role of landscape architects as an integrated team member at the ASLA 2014 Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado.

John Bourgeois became Executive Project Manager of the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration project in December 2009. John brings over 18 years of experience working on large scale wetland restoration issues to the Project. For the previous 12 years, he worked as a restoration ecologist with the Bay Area ecological consulting firm H. T. Harvey & Associates where he worked on numerous closely related San Francisco Bay wetlands projects. Prior to coming to California, John worked on wetland issues at the USGS National Wetland Research Center, the Coastal Restoration Division of the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, and the U.S. Forest Service’s Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry. John has a M.S. from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, a B.S. from Tulane University. He currently lives in Los Gatos with his wife Susan, where he is very active in his community having served on the planning commission and other committees for over 10 years.

Matt Schweisberg (matt@wetlandsns.com) is the principal of Wetland Strategies and Solutions, LLC, where he provides policy, regulatory and technical advice and assistance for clients seeking to navigate a wide range of regulatory and non-regulatory issues related to wetlands and other aquatic resources. He works throughout the U.S. Matt is a Professional Wetland Scientist under the Professional Certification Program of the Society of Wetland Scientists. He is a retired federal wetlands ecologist and wildlife biologist who spent over 32 years with the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency at its HQ office in Washington, D.C. and New England Region office in Boston. Matt served as Chief of the New England Region’s Wetlands Protection Program and Senior Wetland Ecologist, and on national work groups developing guidance and regulations on Clean Water Act jurisdiction. He has testified before federal grand juries and served several times as an expert witness in federal, state, and private litigation. He co-instructs a week-long intensive course on wetland identification and delineation at the Eagle Hill Institute in Maine, and has taught courses in wetland regulation, restoration and creation, wetland ecology, and wetland identification and delineation for federal and state agencies, academic organizations, and environmental consultants. He received his degree in Wildlife Management from the University of Maine.

 

September - Break

August - Break

Bottomland Hardwood Restoration

Held Tuesday, July 12, 2016 - 3:00 p.m. ET

INTRODUCTION

• Marla Stelk, Policy Analyst, Association of State Wetland Managers and Jeanne Christie, Association of State Wetland Managers [POWERPOINT PRESENTATION]

PRESENTERS

• John A. Stanturf, PhD, U.S. Forest Service [POWERPOINT PRESENTATION]
• John W. Groninger, PhD Southern Illinois University [POWERPOINT PRESENTATION]
  

ABSTRACTS

Restoring Bottomland Hardwood Forests – John A. Stanturf, PhD, U.S. Forest Service

Bottomland hardwood forests (BLH) occur in the floodplains of major and minor rivers and reach their greatest extent in the southern US, in particular the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley. These species rich forests have been extensively cleared for agriculture and the rivers altered for flood control and navigation. Nevertheless, federal, state and private programs are attempting to restore BLH, mostly on economically marginal agricultural land. Matching species to site, primarily in terms of inundation regime and flooding tolerance, is a critical performance factor but often difficult to accomplish in altered landscapes. The challenges of obtaining quality seedlings and insuring an adequate planting job have resulted in outright failures or sub-par results. Adequate competition control may be constrained by limitations placed by federal cost-sharing programs. Attempts to restore microtopography and hydrological re-connection can be costly, produce adverse off-site impacts, or both. The presentation focuses on best available science and current practice in bottomland hardwood restoration.

Afforested Bottomlands: Managing the Middle Years – John W. Groninger, PhD, Southern Illinois University

Agency land managers in the Cache River Wetlands of southern Illinois are faced with maintaining the full range of habitat conditions for diverse wildlife species. Following a period of intense afforestation concluding approximately 15 years ago, the Cache has been subjected to several significant stand and landscape level forces having long-term implications for restoration performance. Forest stand dynamics, historic disturbance patterns, invasive species and the use of indicator species for landscape level management will be highlighted. The presentation focuses on afforested stands now between establishment and maturity but also addresses management options for other important habitat components.

BIOS

John Stanturf is a Senior Scientist with the US Forest Service in Athens, GA. From 1992 to 2000, he was Project Leader at the Center for Bottomland Hardwoods Research in Stoneville, MS where he and colleagues established a long-term study at the Sharkey Restoration Site. They compared two standard WRP techniques for restoring bottomland hardwoods (planting and direct seeding Nuttall oak) with a passive and a more intensive technique (Eastern cottonwood nurse crop with interplanted Nuttall oak). In his current position he retains an interest in bottomland hardwood silviculture and restoration while focusing globally on forest landscape restoration to meet the Bonn Challenge/New York Declaration to restore 350 million ha of deforested and degraded land by 2 030.

John Groninger is a professor in the Department of Forestry at Southern Illinois University where his teaching and research interests have include silviculture, agroforestry, urban forestry, and watershed rehabilitation in highly disturbed and socially unstable environments. Since coming to SIU in 1997, he and his graduate students have maintained a strong interest in regeneration and stand development within the Cache River Wetlands. This work is part of a broadly interdisciplinary effort among SIU researchers to address the full range of conservation management challenges within agriculture dominated watersheds. Prior to his present position, John was a Ph.D. student and Post-doctoral researcher and instructor at Virginia Tech

 
Gulf Coast Restoration Post-Katrina

Held Monday, June 27, 2016 - 3:00 p.m. ET

INTRODUCTION

• Marla Stelk, Policy Analyst, Association of State Wetland Managers and Jeanne Christie, Association of State Wetland Managers  [POWERPOINT PRESENTATION]

PRESENTERS

• Bren Haase, Planning and Research Division, Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, State of Louisiana [POWERPOINT PRESENTATION]
• William P. Klein, Jr. Ed.D., U.S. Army Corps of Engineers [POWERPOINT PRESENTATION]
• John Andrew Nyman, PhD, Professor, School of Renewable Natural Resources, Louisiana State University [POWERPOINT PRESENTATION]
• Denise J. Reed, PhD, Chief Scientist, The Water Institute of the Gulf [POWERPOINT PRESENTATION]

ABSTRACTS

Coastal Protection and Restoration in Louisiana: Post Katrina/Rita Approach – Bren Haase, Planning and Research Division, Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, State of Louisiana

Louisiana is facing a coastal land loss crisis that has claimed 1,880 square miles of land since the 1930’s. Given the importance of so many of south Louisiana’s assets – waterways, natural resources, unique culture and wetlands – this land loss crisis is of national significance. Following the hurricane season of 2005 in which Louisiana saw both Hurricanes Katrina and Rita make landfall, Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) was created. The CPRA is established as the single state entity with authority to articulate a clear statement of priorities and to focus development and implementation efforts to achieve comprehensive coastal restoration and protection for Louisiana. The CPRA is mandated to develop, implement, and enforce Louisiana’s Comprehensive Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast. This presentation will focus on the implications of Louisiana’s land loss crisis to the region and nation, the state’s change in approach to restoration following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and the development and implementation of Louisiana’s Master Plan.

Wetland Restoration Pre- and Post-Hurricane Katrina Perspective of an Environmental Manager – William P. Klein, Jr. Ed.D., U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

This presentation provides a selected overview of environmental restoration efforts in coastal Louisiana, both pre- and post-Hurricane Katrina (2005) from the perspective of a Senior Biologist, Environmental Planner/Manager with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), New Orleans District (CEMVN). The Corps goal for its environmental mission is to focus on ecosystem structure and processes and manage the land and resources in a sustainable manner. The presentation includes description of the Corps Environmental Operating Principles, selected restoration laws, and description of the problem with over 100 years of extensive and continuing land loss throughout coastal Louisiana. Pre-Katrina selected ecosystem restoration efforts (Sections 1135, 204 and 206 of the various Water Resources Development Acts are chronicled, development of the joint Federal and state consensus-based strategic restoration plan, the Coast 2050 Plan, which has become the basis for subsequent coast-wide Federal and state restoration efforts. Briefly described are the 1990 Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act; the development and implementation of the 2005 Louisiana Coastal Area (LCA) Near-Term Ecosystem Restoration Plan, and the ongoing Southwest Coastal Louisiana and LCA Mississippi River Hydrodynamic and Delta Management Studies. The future of the Louisiana coastal area and the need for continued ecosystem restoration efforts are the closing slides in the presentation.

Fish, Vegetation, and Wildlife as Performance Measures in Gulf Coast Restoration – John Andrew Nyman, PhD, Professor, School of Renewable Natural Resources, Louisiana State University

Fish and wildlife provided the primary justification for wetland restoration efforts in the late 1900s but storm surge became an important justification in the 2000s. All of these functions depend upon wetland vegetation. Fifty years ago, restoration efforts generally focused on slowing conversion of emergent wetlands to shallow open water but today restoration efforts generally focus on using river diversions to convert shallow open water to emergent wetlands or upon placement of dredged material to convert shallow open water into emergent wetlands and barrier beaches. This presentation will summarize numerous studies of these restoration techniques on vegetation, fish, and wildlife.

Gulf Coast Restoration: Using Science for Long-Term Planning – Denise J. Reed, PhD, Chief Scientist, The Water Institute of the Gulf

When rapid changes in wetlands are seen after hurricanes or droughts, focusing restoration on outing the system back the way it was may be an understandable approach. However, when the durability of wetland restoration investments is considered, actions that put things back the way they were may not lead to long term performance. Scientific understanding of wetland processes and response to change can be captured to predict change in wetlands, both natural and restored, decades into the future. This presentation will discuss tools to predict wetland change over time and response to sea-level and subsidence, as well as some of the outstanding challenges in understanding response to storm impacts.

BIOS

Bren Haase is Chief of the Planning and Research Division of the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. He holds degrees in marine biology and oceanography/coastal sciences from Auburn University and Louisiana State University, respectively. He has over 20 years of experience in coastal wetlands ecology, restoration and regulation in the private sector, and with the Federal and State governments. Currently, he manages the development of Louisiana’s Comprehensive Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast, the planning, evaluation, and permitting phases of Louisiana’s oil spill restoration program, the Louisiana Coastal Area Ecosystem Restoration Program, the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Program, Beneficial Use of Dredged Material Program and Mississippi River Sediment Diversion Program among others.

William P. Klein, Jr., Ed.D. is a Biologist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District. Certified Professional Biologist, Senior Environmental Manager/Planner, Regional Lead for Adaptive Management and Monitoring, Subject Matter Expert Coastal Restoration. Plan, budget and conduct civil works water resources development studies and projects including: hurricane and flood risk reduction, navigation, and ecosystem restoration. Conduct environmental impacts assessment, analysis and documentation (e.g., environmental impact statements) on large-scale, complex, and often controversial projects such as: the Coastal Texas Protection and Restoration Study, Louisiana Coastal Area (LCA) Ecosystem Restoration Study and Projects, the Mississippi River Hydrodynamic and Delta Management Study, Southwest Coastal Louisiana Study, West Shore Lake Pontchartrain, others. Develop and implement mitigation plans, adaptive management and monitoring plans for region-wide studies and projects.

Andy Nyman, Ph.D., has been studying Louisiana’s wetlands since 1987 and interacting with wetland restoration programs since 1993. He has published over 65 peer-reviewed articles and chapters with graduate students and other collaborators. His most cited papers address oil spills and marsh vertical accretion, which allows coastal wetlands worldwide to offset some global sea-level rise and local subsidence. His publications include a text book chapter on managing coastal wetlands in the Wildlife Management Techniques Manual. His most recent publications address the effects of nutrients on wetland vegetation and attempts to use leaf-tissue chemistry as a restoration-planning technique much as is done in agriculture. He is a wildlife professor at the School of Renewable Natural Resources at Louisiana State University and also moonlights as the sole employee of River Oaks Wetland Services, Inc. providing expert consulting and expert witness services.

Denise Reed, Ph.D., is the Chief Scientist for the Water Institute of the Gulf. She is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in coastal marsh sustainability and the role of human activities in modifying coastal systems. She has worked on coastal issues in the US and in other parts of the world, for over 30 years. Dr. Reed has been extensively involved in restoration planning in coastal Louisiana since the early 1990's with a focus on bringing scientific knowledge to bear in developing sustainable solutions. Reed has also been engaged in ecosystem restoration research and planning both in the California Bay-Delta and coastal Louisiana. She has served on numerous boards and panels concerning the effects of human alterations on coastal environments and the role of science in guiding ecosystem restoration, including a number of National Research Council Committees. She received her BA and PhD from the University of Cambridge in England.

Establishing Reference Conditions for Performance Standards & Long Term Monitoring Results: Soils, Hydrology and Vegetation

Held Tuesday, May 10, 2016 - 3:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. EDT

INTRODUCTION

• Marla Stelk, Policy Analyst, Association of State Wetland Managers and Jeanne Christie, Association of State Wetland Managers  [POWERPOINT PRESENTATION]

PRESENTERS

• Dr. Robert Brooks, Professor, Pennsylvania State University and Director, Riparia [POWERPOINT PRESENTATION]
• Dr. W. Lee Daniels, Professor, Virginia Tech [POWERPOINT PRESENTATION]
• Dr. Eric Stein, Principal Scientist, Southern California Coastal Water Research Project [POWERPOINT PRESENTATION]

ABSTRACTS

Using Reference Wetlands for Restoration and Mitigation Design - Dr. Robert Brooks

Despite 25 years of calls for improving wetlands mitigation and restoration practices, advancements have been scarce, and progress slow. Using data from natural reference wetlands for an appropriate wetland type and region is essential for practitioners who want to enhance project designs and measure performance over time. By designing mitigation or restoration sites with characteristics derived from reference wetlands of relevant hydrogeomorphic subclasses, practitioners are more likely to construct a project that will at least be on a performance trajectory to replace the ecosystem services of natural systems. Example of performance standards and a review of available reference wetlands data nationwide will be provided.

Development of Performance Standards for Wetland Soil Reconstruction - Dr. W. Lee Daniels

Success of wetland creation efforts in mid-Atlantic USA has frequently been limited by inappropriate soil conditions, particularly excessive compaction and low levels of organic matter. Post-construction wetland hydroperiods, particularly for forested wetlands, are commonly dissimilar from natural undisturbed systems. For the past twenty years, Virginia Tech has worked collaboratively with partner universities (ODU and VIMS), state and federal regulatory authorities, VDOT and the private sector to develop and monitor a full range of wetland soil reconstruction protocols to address these combined issues. In this seminar, we will review a range of underlying field studies and associated recommendations for optimal wetland soil recreation along with a newly developed water budget modeling package (Wetbud) applicable to the design and verification of created wetland hydroperiods.

Improving Mitigation Success through Use of Performance Curves (Trajectories) and Tiered Performance Standards - Dr. Eric Stein

“People generally do what they are told”. This fact defines both the challenge and the opportunity of improving the success of wetland and stream mitigation. Numerous studies have questioned the efficacy of mitigation practices, yet an equal number of studies suggest that that permittees are actually complying with conditions of their dredge and fill permits. One strategy to improve overall mitigation success is to refine how the performance standards incorporated into many permit conditions are structured so that they compel permittees to design and implement mitigation projects (or banks) in ways more conducive to long-term success. This webinar will present tools and approaches that could be used to improve performance standards. For example, tiered performance standards incrementally require different physical and hydrologic elements of mitigation implementation to be achieved before implementing biological restoration measures. We will also show examples of the development of performance trajectories that can be used to help identify whether mitigation sites are on track toward success or in need of remedial measures. As these (and other) tools are implemented, they should help better align permit requirements with actions that promote restoration success.

BIOS

Dr. Robert P. Brooks is Professor of Geography and Ecology, and Founder and Director of Riparia at the Pennsylvania State University. He is a practicing wetland scientist and wildlife biologist certified by the Society of Wetland Scientists and The Wildlife Society, respectively. His research and outreach emphasizes assessments of wetlands and streams, habitat modeling for wetland-dependent wildlife, and restoration of aquatic ecosystems. He recently co-edited a book on Mid-Atlantic Freshwater Wetlands, and was the 2013 recipient of the National Wetlands Award for Science Research. rpb2@psu.edu

W. Lee Daniels is the Thomas B. Hutcheson Professor of Environmental Soil Science at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. He received his Ph.D. in Soil Science from VPI & SU in 1985. Dr. Daniels areas of specialization include stabilization and restoration of disturbed lands including areas disturbed by mining, road building, waste disposal, urbanization and erosion. In particular, he has focused his research and consulting experience in wetland impact mitigation,mine reclamation, and soil-waste management systems. His teaching programs at Virginia Tech focus on soil geomorphology and landscape analysis with particular emphasis on the relationships among surficial geology, hydrology, soil patterns and long term landscape evolution processes. Major awards include the Reclamation Researcher of the Year by the American Society for Surface Mining and Reclamation (ASMR) in 1993, USEPA’s National Biosolids Utilization Research Award in 2000 and the Lifetime Achievement in Research Award by ASMR in 2012.

Dr. Eric Stein is a principal scientist at the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project (SCCWRP), where he is head of the Biology Department. Dr. Stein oversees a variety of projects related to in-stream and coastal water quality, bioassessment, hydromodification, watershed modeling, and assessment of wetlands and other aquatic resources. His research focuses on effects of human activities on the condition of aquatic ecosystems, and on developing tools to better assess and manage those effects. Dr. Stein has authored over 100 journal articles and technical reports and participates on numerous technical workgroups and committees related to water quality and wetland assessment and management. Prior to joining SCCWRP in 2002, Dr. Stein spent six years as a Senior Project Manager with the Regulatory Branch of the Los Angeles District Corps of Engineers, and four years with a private consulting firm.

 

Managing Invasive Species in Wetland Restoration Projects: Considerations for Common Reed, Reed Canary Grass, Purple Loosestrife, Nutria and Feral Hogs

Tuesday, April 26, 2016 - 3:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. EDT

INTRODUCTION

• Marla Stelk, Policy Analyst, Association of State Wetland Managers and Jeanne Christie, Association of State Wetland Managers [POWERPOINT PRESENTATION]

PRESENTERS

• Margaret (Marnie) Pepper, Wildlife Biologist and Project Leader, USDA-APHIS-Wildlife Services, Chesapeake Bay Nutria Eradication Project/Nutria Detector Dog Program [POWERPOINT PRESENTATION]
• Wendy Anderson, Certified Wildlife Biologist and Assistant Program Manager, USDA-APHIS-Wildlife Service, National Feral Swine Damage Management Program [POWERPOINT PRESENTATION]
• Eric Hazelton, PhD Candidate, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and the Department of Watershed Sciences & Ecology Center, Utah State University [POWERPOINT PRESENTATION]
• Ben Peterson, Aquatic Noxious Weed Specialist, King County Noxious Weed Control Program, Washington [POWERPOINT PRESENTATION]
• Craig Annen, Operations Manager and Director of Research, Integrated Restorations, LLC [POWERPOINT PRESENTATION]

ABSTRACTS

Chesapeake Bay Nutria Eradication Project - Margaret (Marnie) Pepper

Nutria (Myocaster coypus), semi-aquatic, South American rodents, were introduced to Maryland in the early 1940s. Originally brought to the area for their fur, the market never established and animals were released or escaped into the environment. Nutria thrived and destroyed the coastal wetlands, resulting in negative environmental and economic impacts to the Chesapeake Bay region. To save the valuable wetland resources the Chesapeake Bay Nutria Eradication Project (CBNEP) was established in 2002 through a partnership with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the United States Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, many state agencies and non-governmental organizations. The CBNEP has removed and reduced nutria populations to near zero across 250,000 acres of wetlands throughout the Delmarva Peninsula (Maryland, Delaware and Virginia). Many areas have recovered and over 400 private landowners have received assistance from the Project. Since all known populations have been trapped to near zero densities, the Project’s focus today is on monitoring/surveillance.

Feral Swine Damage to Wetlands and Effective Management of this Invasive Species - Wendy Anderson

Feral swine (Sus scrofa), also known as wild pigs, feral hogs, or wild boars, are unconstrained or unclaimed swine including Eurasian boars, Polynesian pigs and escaped, or feral, domestic swine and hybrids. They are a harmful and destructive invasive species whose geographic range is rapidly expanding and populations are increasing across the United States. The relocation of feral swine by people has exacerbated their spread, while population growth is due to their high reproductive capacity, lack of natural predators, and adaptability to nearly any environment. Due to their lack of sweat glands, feral swine prefer moist environments where they can wallow in muddy water to maintain their body temperature. Their consumption of large amounts of vegetation and rooting, trampling, and wallowing behaviors pose problems for wetland habitats. Sites disturbed by feral swine are often vulnerable to soil compaction, erosion, degraded water quality, elevated waterborne bacteria levels, increased mosquito habitat, and the establishment of invasive plants. Siltation and water contamination in streams and coastal areas with feral swine activity have contributed to declines in aquatic organisms, including freshwater mussels and insects. Feral swine may eat or uproot protected, sensitive, or rare plants and prey on invertebrates, other small animals, and the eggs and young of ground-nesting birds and reptiles, including threatened and endangered species. Through collaboration with other federal, state, tribal, and local entities and landowners, the United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is on the frontlines in the battle with this invasive species. A national strategy has been developed to reduce, and where possible, eliminate the damages inflicted by feral swine to America’s resources. An integrated wildlife damage management approach, involving education, outreach, research, monitoring, and an array of control methods is both recommended and applied at the local level. Improvement to the health of wetlands has been documented where feral swine populations have been removed.

Invasion of the Clones: Phragmites Invasion in North America - Eric Hazelton

Phragmites distribution is tied to land use in, and adjacent to, the wetlands it inhabits. Anthropogenic and natural disturbances allow Phragmites to colonize new areas by seed, then it expands by seed and clonal reproduction. Nutrient input allows Phragmites to grow explosively and out compete native vegetation. We will present a model of Phragmites invasions, and the anthropogenic factors that facilitate its success. Additionally, we will present the distribution of native Phragmites in an effort to reduce mistaken identities. Our goals are to help managers focus their efforts on wetlands that are likely to recover to a native plant community, and not spend often limited budgets on native Phragmites or wetlands that are too degraded to be resilient toward reinvasion.

Purple Loosestrife- identification and control of this wetland noxious weed - Ben Peterson

Purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) is one of the most widespread and impactful wetland and shoreline weeds in North America. This talk will cover the plant’s history, impact, and reproduction characteristics. A variety of control techniques will be discussed, including examples of what is used in Washington State. These techniques include manual, biocontrol, cultural, chemical, and combining techniques into an IPM (Integrated Pest Management) strategy.

Reversing Reed Canarygrass Invasions with Process-Based Approaches - Craig Annen

Reed canarygrass (RCG) has been the topic of 913 published studies from 311 different peer-reviewed journals. Despite such a large pool of information available to land managers, reversing RCG invasions is widely perceived as an unrealistic management goal. However, recent insights into community structure have revealed that plant community states are structured and reinforced by feedback cycles within the system. Manipulating these feedbacks in conjunction with applying standard management practices (burning, herbicide applications, etc.) has made reversing reed canarygrass invasions a matter of routine (and affordable) management. This systems approach will be illustrated with examples from several successful reversal projects.

A Multiple-Method Systems Approach to Reversing Reed Canargyrass Invasions

Prospects for Disrupting Rhizome Apical Dominance Prior to Chemical Treatment of Phalaris arundinacea

BIOS

Marnie Pepper received her Bachelor of Science degree in Wildlife Conservation in 2003 and a Master of Science degree in Wildlife Ecology from the University of Delaware in 2008. She started on Chesapeake Bay Nutria Eradication Project stationed in Cambridge, Maryland as the Wildlife Biologist in 2010. She was responsible for developing The Nutria Detector Dog Program through a partnership with the National Detector Dog Training Center (A program within APHIS – Plant Protection and Quarantine). She is a certified Agricultural Detector Dog Handler and a Field Canine Trainer. In 2015 she assumed the role as Project Leader. The Chesapeake Bay Nutria Project consists of 10 Wildlife Specialists (4 Canine Handlers), a Maintenance Mechanic, and an Office Assistant/GIS Specialist.

Wendy Anderson is a TWS (The Wildlife Society) Certified Wildlife Biologist with the USDA - Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s Wildlife Services program where she works as the Assistant Program Manager for the National Feral Swine Damage Management Program based in Fort Collins, Colorado. Wendy has worked for Wildlife Services for 18 years in various locations and positions, ranging from Field Biologist in Arizona to State Director in New Jersey. She is originally from Alaska. Wendy received a B.S. in Wildlife Biology and Natural Resource Sciences from Washington State University and a Masters of Public Administration from Troy University. In her current position with the National Feral Swine Damage Management Program, she coordinates with Wildlife Services programs in 41 states and 2 territories that receive federal feral swine allocations, and their state agency partners, on managing damage caused by feral swine through population suppression or, where possible, elimination.

Eric Hazelton has been working in coastal wetlands since 2004 when he conducted Master's research on the physiology of Spartina, and native and introduced Phragmites at the University of Southern Maine. Since then he has worked in academia, USFWS, and consulted extensively on Phragmites management. Currently, Eric is finishing a PhD in Ecology at Utah State University with research centered at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Maryland, focusing on Phragmites management in Chesapeake Bay. He is looking at the impact of land use on Phragmites management, plant recovery, and the impact of management on wetlands. Additionally, Eric has worked for over a decade identifying, and locating stands of native Phragmites in wetlands in all corners of the country.

Ben Peterson has been with the King County Noxious Weed Control Program (KCNWCP) for eight years working on both aquatic and terrestrial weed issues. He earned a BS in Rangeland Ecology from Colorado State University in 1998 and a MS in Forest Resources from the University of Washington in 2008. He has over fifteen years of experience working in the restoration field for federal and local agencies, as well as private ecological restoration companies. In his current position as the Aquatic Noxious Weed Specialist for the KCNWCP he develops control priorities; write management plans; surveys for aquatic weeds; work cooperatively with land owners to achieve control of regulated aquatic noxious weeds; provides public education about the impacts of aquatic noxious weeds and control strategies.

Craig Annen (B.S. Environmental Science and Plant Molecular Biology, M.S. Aquatic Botany) is Operations Manager and Director of Research with the firm Integrated Restorations, LLC. Craig has previously worked for the International Crane Foundation, Harlan Sprague Dawley Biotechnologies, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and Michler & Brown, LLC. His research interests include invasive species ecology (focusing on reed canarygrass, narrow-leaved and hybrid cattail, and crown vetch), herbicide-additive chemistry, lichens and primitive plants, mathematical ecology, and conservation economics. Craig can be contacted at www.ir-wi.com). 

Water Rights & Wetland Restoration

Tuesday, February 23, 2016 - 3:00 p.m. ET

INTRODUCTION

• Marla Stelk, Policy Analyst, Association of State Wetland Managers and Jeanne Christie, Association of State Wetland Managers [POWERPOINT PRESENTATION]

PRESENTERS

• Alan J. Leak, P.E.., Program Manager, Water Rights and Infrastructure at RESPEC [POWERPOINT PRESENTATION]
  
• Julie A. Merritt, Water Resources Specialist/Project Manager, WGM Group [POWERPOINT PRESENTATION]
  

ABSTRACTS

Western Water Rights - What You Need to Know - Alan J. Leak, P.E.

Water rights are the fabric of semi-arid and arid regions of the Western United States. Basic understanding of the principles behind the prior-appropriation doctrine used in most western states and how it differs from riparian and other types of water rights administration is vital in the decisions and recommendations one makes regarding any project that includes wetlands. Projects dealing with wetlands often need to recognize how they may affect or may be affected by State water rights laws and regulation. This presentation will provide you with insight in a very critical area of western water rights and the variations in the laws and water administration in the Western United States.

Water Rights Regulations and Wetland Restoration: A Montana Perspective - Julie A. Merritt

Water use in Montana is controlled, as it is in other western states, by the Prior Appropriation Doctrine. Because wetland restoration projects may include diversion of surface and/or groundwater, or changes to an existing flow regimes, water right regulations must be addressed. It is critical to consider both the flow rate and volume of water needed as well as potential impacts to nearby water users. Even if regulators determine water rights are not required for a project, legal challenges can arise if changes to flow regimes affect downstream or adjacent surface or groundwater users.

BIOS

Alan J. Leak, P.E., is the Program Manager for Water Rights and Infrastructure at RESPEC. Alan has over 34 years of comprehensive engineering experience in water rights, water and wastewater infrastructure, and stormwater management. Alan has served as an expert witness in number of Colorado water court proceedings and hearings dealing with water rights, water augmentation plans, water resources development, substitute water supply plans, reuse and exchange plans, water rights accounting, development of water supply plans, and many other areas of water resources engineering. As an expert witness he has developed testimony, participated in depositions, and appeared under cross-examinations. Alan also teaches a two day water rights engineering course for the Urban Watershed Research Institute. His in-depth and unparalleled water rights expertise offers you a unique and exceptionally valuable learning experience.

Ms. Merritt has been working as a water resources specialist for over 19 years, working closely with private property owners involved in state and federal water conservation programs and preparing water right analyses for public and private organizations. Her experience includes locating and analyzing historical documents, maps and aerial photographs, analyzing Montana Water Court decrees for water right clients, and preparing water right permit and change of use applications with the Montana Dept of Natural Resources and Conservation. 

Evaluating the Ecological Performance of Compensatory Mitigation

Tuesday, February 2, 2016 – 3:00 p.m. ET

INTRODUCTION

• Marla Stelk, Policy Analyst, Association of State Wetland Managers and Jeanne Christie, Association of State Wetland Managers [POWERPOINT PRESENTATION]

PRESENTERS

• Joseph A. Morgan, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Wetlands Division [POWERPOINT PRESENTATION]
  
• Dr. Eric Stein, Southern California Coastal Water Research Project [POWERPOINT PRESENTATION]
  
• Dr. Siobhan Fennessy, Kenyon College [POWERPOINT PRESENTATION]
  

ABSTRACTS

Joseph A. Morgan
Compensatory mitigation offsets losses permitted under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act, and has been the subject of various disputes surrounding its ecological value and administrative oversight. Evaluating both ecological and administrative performance of compensatory mitigation programs under §404 of the Clean Water Act is essential to ensuring that wetland functions are restored and protected. In this review of studies evaluating compensatory mitigation performance in the last 15 years, trends show an overall decline in evaluations, especially in the years since the 2008 Mitigation Rule. Compensatory mitigation performance has not been evaluated for large portions of the US, and relatively few studies of compensation for streams have taken place despite the growing importance of this area of compensatory mitigation. Study design is inconsistent, making comparisons across time and space difficult.

Dr. Eric Stein and Dr. Siobhan Fennessy
Despite billions of dollars spent and dozens of scientific studies, we still lack the ability to demonstrate whether investments in compensatory mitigation are producing meaningful offsets of wetland losses and ensuring that sustainable wetland resources will be maintained over the long-term. In an attempt to achieve national “no-net loss” objectives, the 2008 Corps-EPA mitigation rule dramatically altered the preferred approaches for compensatory mitigation by prioritizing larger scale mitigation banks and in-lieu fee programs over traditional site-specific mitigation. Determining the effectiveness of this strategy at improving mitigation performance will require a standardized, repeatable, and easily reportable monitoring and assessment strategy that can be applied at the watershed, state, or national scale. Past attempts to address questions of mitigation performance have been hampered by the lack of consistent protocols and designs. To address this challenge a team of national wetland experts developed a protocol to assess the ecological outcomes of the three compensatory mitigation mechanisms (banking, in lieu fee, and permittee responsible) in a manner that will enable comparisons of these mechanisms nationwide. The recommended protocol is a modified version of the methods developed by USEPA for the National Wetland Condition Assessment (NWCA) and relies primarily on vegetation, soils, and hydrology, which are the defining features of wetlands and have proved useful for characterizing community structure and ecosystem condition. This approach facilitates standardization and allows leveraging of nationwide reference sites. Implementation of this approach at broad spatial scales over time should allow for a rigorous evaluation of current mitigation policies and approaches. This webinar will provide an overview of the proposed approach and results of pilot implementations in Ohio and North Carolina.

BIOS

Joseph A. Morgan is an environmental scientist currently working within EPA’s Wetlands Division at EPA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., under an appointment to the Oak Ridge Institute of Science and Education (ORISE) Research Participation Program. He primarily studies issues surrounding stream and wetland compensatory mitigation performance, and is particularly interested in working with tribal, state, and federal governments to design sustainable programs for evaluating the ecological performance of mitigation projects. Joe also provides advisory support in key issue areas including stream restoration, general permitting, and surface coal mining. Prior to joining EPA’s Wetlands Division, Joe wrote his Masters thesis on the effects of restoration practices on riverine hydrological and biogeochemical processes at Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

Dr. Eric Stein is a principal scientist at the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project (SCCWRP), where he is head of the Biology Department. Dr. Stein oversees a variety of projects related to in-stream and coastal water quality, bioassessment, hydromodification, watershed modeling, and assessment of wetlands and other aquatic resources. His research focuses on effects of human activities on the condition of aquatic ecosystems, and on developing tools to better assess and manage those effects. Dr. Stein has authored over 100 journal articles and technical reports and participates on numerous technical workgroups and committees related to water quality and wetland assessment and management. Prior to joining SCCWRP in 2002, Dr. Stein spent six years as a Senior Project Manager with the Regulatory Branch of the Los Angeles District Corps of Engineers, and four years with a private consulting firm.

Dr. Siobhan Fennessy is the Jordan professor of Biology and Environmental Studies at Kenyon College. As a wetland ecologist she studies biological assessment methods, watershed-based assessment approaches, restoration, and the role of temperate wetlands in the global carbon cycle. She received her Ph.D. in Environmental Biology from the Ohio State University in 1991. She previously served on the faculty of the Geography Department of University College London. During a subsequent position at Ohio EPA, Fennessy helped establish Ohio’s wetland bioassessment program and wrote the wetland water quality standards for Ohio. Fennessy worked for the past 6 years on the National Wetland Condition Assessment led by USEPA, including to help design NWCA field methods, co-develop the U.S. Rapid Assessment Method, develop plant-based metrics for use in an vegetation IBI, and work on soil based indicators. She currently serves on the Water Science and Technology Board, a governing board of the National Academy of Sciences and was recently appointed to both the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (UNEP) and the Ramsar Convention’s Scientific and Technical Review Panel.

 

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View a List of Improving Wetland Restoration Success Webinar Recordings Here