SFEI’s Wetland Science Focus Area’s Director, Josh Collins, is a leader in the coordination of statewide science advisory teams and acquiring funding to develop monitoring and assessment tools that support the State’s Wetland and Riparian Area Protection Policy (Policy).  The purpose of the Policy is to advance statewide efforts to ensure no overall net loss and  a long-term net gain in the quantity, quality and sustainability of wetlands in California.  It also wants to promote a common framework for wetland area monitoring and assessment to inform regulatory decisions and ensure consistency with statewide environmental reporting programs and enhance the State Water Board’s capabilities to support efforts of other agencies and groupsin the conservation planning of watersheds, wetlands, and other aquatic resources.

The California Wetland Monitoring Workgroup (CWMW) and the State Water Board has convened several committees, advisory groups and workgroups consisting scientific and technical leaders from state, federal and local regulatory agencies, consultants, and academics across the state to vet and develop standardized wetland monitoring and assesment methods, and data management and information disemination tools that support the WRAPP.  Those online tools allow aquatic resource managers, and the public, access to statewide monitoring information from wetland projects, and ambient surveys in order to make informed management decisions based on the best avaiable, standardized monitoring data.

Those tools are built by SFEI’s Environmental Informatics Program staff and showcased elsewhere one SFEI’s website.  They include (EcoAtlas, CRAM, CARI, Project Tracker, and the Landscape Profile tool). 


California’s Wetland and Riparian Area Protection Policy

In 2008 the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) resolved to improve wetlands protection around the state through a new policy, Resolution No. 2008-0026, that called for the development of a policy to protect wetlands and riparian areas in order to restore and maintain the water quality and beneficial uses of the waters of the state.  

Phase 1 of the Wetland and Riparian Area Protection Policy (Wetland Policy) was released in draft in 2013 and is going through a public comment period.  The Phase 1 Wetland Policy is called the “Wetland Area Protection and Dredge and Fill Permitting Policy.” The purpose of Phase 1 is to protect all waters of the State, including wetlands, from dredge and fill discharges.  The Wetland Policy includes four elements: (1) a wetland definition; (2) a wetland delineation method; (3) a wetland assessment and monitoring framework; and (4) authorization procedures for dredge and fill discharges to waters of the state.

The Wetland Policy’s Technical Advisory Team

With funding from the EPA Region-9 Wetland Program Development grants, Josh Collins has been the Chair of a Technical Advisory Team (TAT) of wetland scientists from state, federal and local agencies and organizations that provides science support for the State Water Board’s Wetland Policy Development Team (PDT).   At the request of the PDT, the TAT has developed several technical memoranda to assist in scientific analysis of specific policy topics including:

Other pending memos include:

California Wetland Monitoring Workgroup (CWMW)

SFEI is an active participant in the California Wetland Monitoring Workgroup (CWMW), whose  mission is to improve the monitoring and assessment of wetland and riparian resources by developing a comprehensive wetland monitoring plan for California and increasing coordination and cooperation among local, state, and federal agencies, tribes, and non-governmental organizations. The workgroup reviews technical and policy aspects of wetland monitoring tool development, implementation and use of data to improve wetland management in California.

To achieve its primary goal of coordinated wetland monitoring, assessment, and reporting, the CWMW recommends that a Wetland and Riparian Area Monitoring Plan (WRAMP). The WRAMP consists of coordinated, comparable regional and statewide efforts that use standardized methods to monitor the effects of natural processes, climate change, and government policies, programs, and projects on the distribution, abundance, and condition of wetlands and riparian areas. A plan for implementing the WRAMP Tenets has been outlined in the Five Year Coordinated Work Plan for Development of a Wetlands Conservation Program (WCP). As state and federal agencies in California move toward implementation of the WRAMP toolkit and the WCP, improved coordination is needed to ensure smooth implementation and maximum utility of data collected.  SFEI has been leading an effort to develop the science support and online technical tools that support standard methodologies for wetland monitoring and assessment across the state.

Developing Wetland Monitoring, Assessment and Reporting Tools

SFEI is working with statewide wetland partners to design and develop science based technical tools that support the State's Wetland Policy. 

1) Landscape Assessments

Through several different funding sources, SFEI has developed a standard mapping protocols and drafted several GIS base maps of aquatic resources at local or regional scales to support watershed based monitoring and assessment projects. Those mapping projects demonstrated adaptive methodologies to apply a standard mapping protocol to different regions across the state by working with local wetland experts to develop new approaches to map region-specific wetland types while maintaining the standardized proceedures.  To date, SFEI has developed the Bay Area Aquatic Resource Inventory (BAARI), Tahoe Aquatic Resources Inventry (TARI) and a North Coast Aquatic Resources Inventory (NCARI) mapping protocols to demonstrate how more detailed and standardized base maps of aquatic resources can be implemented around the state.  

Those project specific, base maps were incorporated into the online Califorinia Aquatic Resources Inventory (CARI) GIS dataset that is displayed on EcoAtlas, along with other regional maps (when available). For areas that do not have detailed GIS, the USGS's National Hydrography Dataset and the USFWS National Wetlands Inventory base maps are visible. The wetland classification system for CARI was standardized making EcoAtlas' CARI dataset the 'best available', standardized statewide dataset of aquatic resources.  An online map editing tool has been added to EcoAtlas to encourage local map stewardship for improvements and updates to CARI by local stakeholders.  

2) Rapid Wetland Condition Assessments

The Califorina Rapid Assessment Method (CRAM) was developed as a standardized tool to monitor and report on the ecological condition of wetlands in a watershed as well as identifiy sites where more intensive monitoring is needed.  SFEI has been a leader in developing CRAM and staff continue to be active members of the statewide CRAM Steering Committee that meets quarterly to review and maintain the California Rapid Assessment Method (CRAM) field manuals, training procedures, data managment, and reporting tools. The Steering Committee is chaired by a staff member from the State Water Board and includes wetland scientists and technical staff from state and federal agencies with regulatory or managmeent responsibility for the health of aquatic resources as well as from academia and other scientific organizations across the state. 

 

Dates: 
2009 to 2016
Programs and Focus Areas: 
Resilient Landscapes Program
Wetland Monitoring & Assessment
Location Information
General Project Location(s): 
California