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When NEBAWWG Asks, NEIWPCC Delivers
Vital Wetlands Training Comes to New England
By Kerry Strout, NEIWPCC
Now in its tenth year, the New England Biological Assessment of Wetlands Workgroup (NEBAWWG) continues to test innovative wetland assessment techniques in the Northeast. NEIWPCC has supported NEBAWWG since its inception in 1998 by coordinating meetings and workshops on wetland assessment and supporting the attendance of state staff at regional and national meetings. Each year the group, which is made up of state and federal managers and academic scientists, meets to discuss how to biologically evaluate the health of the region’s wetlands.
During the 2007 NEBAWWG annual meeting, the group asked NEIWPCC to organize and host two technical trainings: a National Wetlands Inventory training session with Ralph Tiner of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and a session on the Ohio Rapid Assessment Method (ORAM) with John Mack, formerly of Ohio EPA and now with Ecological Training and Survey Services. The Ralph Tiner session, entitled “New Developments in Wetlands Mapping: Regionally and Nationally,” took place in late 2007 in Lowell, Mass., and attracted more than 40 attendees from across the region.
In May 2008, NEIWPCC hosted John Mack’s session on ORAM, which he authored and developed during his tenure at Ohio EPA. Other states have also developed rapid assessment methods (RAMs), which once established and vetted, can provide sound quantitative information on the condition of a wetland in a reasonably small amount of time and with minimal effort. But ORAM has been particularly successful because of its ease-of-use and ability to generate accurate results. It was designed to help satisfy both federal laws, such as sections 401 and 404 of the Clean Water Act, and state laws that require the development of -specific monitoring and assessment methods for wetlands. ORAM is considered a good model for the states in the Northeast, which are in various stages of developing and executing RAMs.
More than 25 state and federal wetland managers and academic scientists took part in the ORAM session, which took place over two days at the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve in Wells, Maine. The first day was spent in the classroom, with Mack leading the group through the ORAM development process and explaining how the method might be adapted to the states in the Northeast. On the second day, the group headed out into the field and applied the method to three distinct sites—a highly degraded wetland, a moderately degraded wetland, and a wetland with minimal disturbance. The attendees broke into small groups and applied ORAM to see how it worked in the field. After each site visit, Mack debriefed the group, fielding questions and offering suggestions for adaptation of ORAM to the site scenario. At the end of the training, the attendees walked away with the information needed to develop state-specific RAMs. In fact, Vermont has already developed a RAM to test in the summer field season.
Training sessions such as these help NEIWPCC’s member states learn about successful efforts elsewhere and avoid “reinventing the wheel.” They learn about mistakes that were made—so they can avoid them—and effective strategies that were pursued—so they too can employ them.
Kerry Strout is a NEIWPCC environmental analyst and the coordinator of all of our wetlands programs, including our work with NEBAWWG. For information about future NEBAWWG meetings and trainings, contact Kerry at kstrout@neiwpcc.org or 978-323-7929 ext. 256.