ASWM News

**New Global Climate Change Web Page**

**New Coastal Wetland Dieback Web Page**

Wetlands and Gobal Climate Change, by Leah Stetson, ASWM

Climate Change and Alaskan Wetlands, by Jim Powell, University of Alaska

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News April 2008 Loss of eelgrass threatens crabs By Lawrence Latane III – Richmond Times Dispatch – March 23, 2008 Summer fun used to mean soft crabs and jimmies for Tom Powers, who merely had to wade into the Chesapeake Bay to catch his fill.  But that ended in 2005 when the 30-acre eelgrass bed he crabbed in disappeared. "It died and it still hasn't come back," the Poquoson resident said. That bed at Hunt's Point and thousands of other acres of eelgrass vanished when water temperatures climbed beyond normal in the lower Chesapeake Bay. Temperatures spiked temporarily between 2.5 and 3 degrees above normal during the summer of 2005. For full story, go to: http://www.inrich.com/content/cva/ric/news.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-03-23-0164.html 'Big Night' part of vernal pool initiative By Susan LaHoud – Sun Chronicle – February 25, 2008 It will be a "Big Night" for certain critters soon. Big Night occurs during a relatively warm and rainy night between March 8 and April 15 when, in an ancient migration ritual, frogs, salamanders and other creatures crawl, hop and fly up to a mile to hit the pool - a vernal pool, that is.  Now in the second year of its Vernal Pool Project, the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences is working to ensure that these unique water bodies are preserved because they are critical to species' breeding as well as an indicator of water quality affecting human health. For full story, go to: http://www.thesunchronicle.com/articles/2008/02/26/features/feature19.txt EPA Announces Release of Indicator Development for Estuaries Manual  The Indicator Development for Estuaries manual is designed to improve measuring progress in the National Estuary Program estuaries and other estuaries.  It is organized to provide the user with a logical, stepwise process for developing and implementing indicators for the estuarine environment.  Indicators can provide cost-effective information on the status and trends of a system, the effectiveness of management actions and allow for mid-course corrections.  Indicators also provide information to inform diverse audiences including environmental managers, scientists, resource managers and the public on the status and progress of restoration efforts.  The manual is available at http://www.epa.gov/owow/estuaries/ January 16, 2008 New Interactive Key to All Grasses and Gymnosperm Species in the US In addition to the previously available interactive key to wetland monocots of the US (ca. 2400 taxa), keys (by state) to grass (Poaceae) species in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, as well as a new key for all gymnosperm species in the US, are now available on the USDA NRCS PLANTS website (http://plants.usda.gov). For a direct link to this resource, visit: http://npdc.usda.gov/technical/plantid_wetland_mono.html New Ecological Assessment Database Available This database was created to help users identify suitable methods and quickly ascertain their utility for a specific application. This searchable database focuses on methods and also includes selected guidance documents which address key classification systems, sampling protocol, or method critiques. For a direct link to this newly available resource, go to: http://assessmentmethods.nbii.gov/ Switchgrass Fuel Yields Bountiful Energy: Study By Timothy Gardner – Reuters News Service – January 10, 2008 Switchgrass, a crop touted by venture capitalists and environmentalists alike as a next-generation ethanol feedstock, yields about five times more energy than it takes to grow it, making the plant a far more efficient fuel source than corn, a new study said. In addition, the life cycle of the switchgrass ethanol -- which includes growing the crop, making the fuel, and burning it in vehicles -- emits about 94 percent less of planet-warming carbon dioxide than the life cycle of gasoline, said the study, published on Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. For full article, go to: http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/46338/story.htm December 21, 2007 Stream Barrier Removal Monitoring Guide  The River Restoration Monitoring Committee of the Gulf of Maine Council is pleased to announce the publication of the Stream Barrier Removal Monitoring Guide. The Stream Barrier Removal Monitoring Guide presents a standardized framework for monitoring the ecological changes that occur when dams, culverts, and other stream barriers are removed. Developed collaboratively by more than 70 people from government agencies and non-governmental organizations, the framework is based on 8 critical monitoring parameters. This document is available at: http://gulfofmaine.org/streambarrierremoval

November 21, 2007 Calling All Wetland Specialists - Seeking Information on Growing Season – Fall Observations Just a reminder that wetland ecologist Ralph Tiner (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) is compiling observations on start and finish of the “growing season” from across the country and your participation is invited.  Growing season is used in wetland delineation to indicate the time of year when inundation and soil saturation have a critical effect on plants.  Visible signs of the growing season are requested: 1) presence of flowers (e.g., witch hazel, asters, and goldenrods), 2) presence of green leaves on non-evergreen species, and 3) production of spores in clubmosses and other spore-bearing plants.  Also of interest would be leaf drop (total leaf drop from deciduous woody plants), leaf browning (e.g., oaks and beeches) where such leaves persist through much of the winter, and herbaceous plant die-back due to killing frost.  Observations for both wetland and upland plants are wanted.  To participate please send your observations to: Ralph_Tiner@fws.gov.  Please put “Growing Season Observations for _______ (specify area)” in the email subject block and for each observation, list the species, the observed feature, the observation date, general habitat (wetland or upland type), and site location (town, county, state).  Your name and affiliation would also be appreciated for acknowledgment of contributors.  This is planned as a multi-year investigation, so for regions where the growing season is year-round or has already commenced, fall observations would be welcome now and observations of both spring and fall reported for future years.  Thanks to all who are willing to help! Lack of Funding Shuts Down USGS Streamgages ESA Policy News Update – November 13, 2007 Representatives of about 50 organizations from five Midwestern states met the week of November 1 to discuss one of the greatest challenges facing water resource management in the United States – the disappearance of the nation's streamgages. The meeting is one of several being held throughout the country to discuss the status of streamgaging carried out under the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) Cooperative Water Program ( CWP ) and National Streamflow Information Program (NSIP). The regional meetings are being organized by the Interstate Council on Water Policy, a national organization of state and regional water resource management agencies. The Council became concerned about the loss of the nation's streamgages because its members rely on accurate water measurements to make management decisions. The gages provide information about streamflow, groundwater, precipitation and other water resource attributes vital to decisionmakers for a wide variety of planning, design and management functions. For full news release, go to: http://www.esa.org/pao/policyNews/pn2007/11132007.php Wetlands Data Viewing Now Available with Google™ Earth Contact: Tom Dahl – US Fish & Wildlife Service – November 9, 2007 A file is now available to automatically load and view Wetlands Data WMS layers into Google Earth. This viewing method provides access to the wetland polygon data in combination with the Google imagery. Wetlands data are available for approximately 60 percent of the conterminous U.S., portions of Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Trust Territories. This service is provided through the USFWS Open GIS Consortium (OGC) compliant Web Map Services (WMS). Please note that Google Earth version 4.2, or higher, is required to run this file. For more information, please visit: http://wetlandswms.er.usgs.gov/ Katrina, Rita Caused Forestry Disaster By Marc Kaufman – Washington Post – November 16, 2007 New satellite imaging has revealed that hurricanes Katrina and Rita produced the largest single forestry disaster on record in the nation -- an essentially unreported ecological catastrophe that killed or severely damaged about 320 million trees in Mississippi and Louisiana. The die-off, caused initially by wind and later by weeks-long pooling of stagnant water, was so massive that researchers say it will add significantly to the global greenhouse gas buildup -- ultimately putting as much carbon from dying vegetation into the air as the rest of the nation's forest takes out in a year of photosynthesis. For full story, go to: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/15/AR2007111501359.html?referrer =emailarticle New Biodiversity Website with Freshwater Conservation Resource Webpages The Biodiversity Informatics Facility at the American Museum of Natural History’s Center for Biodiversity and Conservation has launched a new website that includes webpages on freshwater conservation. For a direct link to this website, visit: http://biodiversityinformatics.amnh.org The Birds Are Back: Good News Along the Pacific Coast Flyway By Glen Martin – San Francisco Chronicle – November 18, 2007 It's a scene right out of the Pleistocene: A gyre of thousands of white-fronted geese and snow geese, spiraling down to a field of stubble from a sky filled with purple and black cumulus. The sun is setting behind the western mountains, and the last shafts of light are incandescing the birds' pinions, making them flash like pink semaphores. The air almost solidifies with the gabbling and yelps from 20,000 avian throats. It is not a wall of sound: It is an El Capitan of sound, a Gibraltar of sound. It would be a little threatening if not for the fact that the calls are easily recognized as exuberance, as excitement, as raucous welcome. The geese are happy to congregate, pleased to be settling down together for the night. It is a stunning spectacle, but it is by no means a rare one - not at this time of year, not in the Sacramento Valley. The refuges, duck clubs, flooded rice fields and riparian woodlands of the Central Valley are the winter destination for the millions of migrating waterfowl - and shorebirds, raptors and songbirds - that ply the Pacific Flyway, one of the four routes used by the continent's birds during their spring and autumn migrations. For full story, go to: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/18/CM70T3FCJ.DTL&type=politi

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News October 26, 2007

EPA Wetlands Webinar Now Available On September 26, the date of our last Workgroup meeting, EPA HQ hosted a webinar entitled "Assessing Wetlands Loss/Conditions and Restoration". Jan Smith, of the Massachusetts Bays Estuary Program, was one of the presenters for the webinar. An audio version of the webcast is now available in their archives. To access the archive, and for more information, please click on the following link: http://www.epa.gov/owow/watershed/wacademy/webcasts/ archives.html#20070926

New vernal pool book: Science and Conservation of Vernal Pools in Northeastern North America Editors/Authors: Aram J. K. Calhoun (University of Maine at Orono) and Phillip G. DeMaynadier (Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, Bangor, Maine). Pulling together information from a broad array of sources, this book guides readers through the issues and solutions surrounding seasonal pools. Drawing on fifteen years of experience, the editors have mined published literature, personal communication from professionals working in the field, unpublished reports and data, and other sources to present the latest information and practical application of this knowledge. They synthesize decades of research on vernal pools and pool-dependent biota, building a foundation for presenting the tools for conserving these ecosystems. Covering a wide range of topics, the book focuses on the key ecological function of vernal pools. For more information, and to order this book, go to: http://www.amazon.com/Science- Conservation-Vernal-Northeastern-America/dp/0849336759

Southeast drought worst in 100 years By Brenda Goodman – New York Times – October 16, 2007 For the first time in more than 100 years, much of the Southeastern United States has reached the most severe category of drought, climatologists said yesterday, citing an emergency so serious that some cities are just months away from running out of water. In North Carolina, Governor Michael F. Easley asked residents yesterday to stop using water for any purpose "not essential to public health and safety." He warned that he would soon have to declare a state of emergency if voluntary efforts fell short. "Now I don't want to have to use these powers," Easley said at a meeting of mayors and other city officials. "As leaders of your communities, you know what works best at the local level. I am asking for your help." Officials in the central North Carolina town of Siler City estimate that without rain, they are 80 days from draining the Lower Rocky River Reservoir, which supplies water for the town's 8,200 people. For full story, go to: http://www.boston.com/news/weather/articles/2007/10/16/ southeast_drought_worst_in_100_years/

After Drought, Diversity Dries Up And Ponds All Look The Same Science Daily/Washington University News – October 17, 2007 An ecologist at Washington University in St. Louis has discovered that after ponds dry up through drought in a region, when they revive, the community of species in each pond tends to be very similar to one another, like so many suburban houses made of ticky tacky. Jonathan M. Chase, WUSTL associate professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, and director of the university's Tyson Research Center, created 20 artificial ponds out of tanks that hold 300 gallons of water. He made each pond community exactly the same in their environmental conditions, but varied the timing in which he added many species to the community-- lots of species, especially dragonflies, water-bugs, frogs, and even algae, happily colonized the ponds on their own accord. For full story, visit: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071015193426.htm

Critters Get a New Home By Manuel Quinones – ABC 13/WSET Virginia – September 30, 2007 Amherst Co., VA - You may have never heard of the big-headed mole salamander but one area business is teaming up with experts to protect its home.  The Boxley materials rock quarry is expanding and experts came with an innovative way to protect ancient wetlands, and it is a major undertaking.  Frogs, salamanders and many other animals live and breed on these wetlands. Mike Haylsett, Educator and Consultant - "These wetlands have been sitting here for thousands of years, long before most occupation.  Natives of course would have used these." Now, experts have come up with a new idea to make way for progress.  Instead of creating a new wetland they are moving an existing one to a new location, helping preserve the wildlife. Tom Roller, Boxley Materials - "We are a natural resource company and part of our mission statement is being good stewards of the environment." Transplanting a vernal pool, which is a type of wetland, from one place to another is more complicated than you may think.  It takes moving plants, trees, and the animals.  Not doing things right could cause problems. For full story, go to: http://www.wset.com/news/stories/0907/459768.html

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News September 29, 2007

Early Fall Waterfowl Habitat Conditions in Canada

By Ducks Unlimited – Chattanoogan – September 26, 2007 The prospects for the fall flight are generally good across Canada this fall and numbers of waterfowl are building in southern areas. Wetland conditions are deteriorating in many regions with recent dry weather, but are still providing adequate habitat for migrating waterfowl. Wetlands in the coastal region of British Columbia are reaching seasonal lows after a generally cool and wet summer. Agricultural crops are being harvested in the region and residual vegetables will provide important food for migrating and wintering waterfowl. For full story, go to: http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_114082.asp

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News August 16, 2007

LA: Gulf Dead Zone Still Third Largest

By Janet McConnaughey – Associated Press / ENN – July 30, 2007 The oxygen-poor "dead zone" off the Louisiana and Texas coasts isn't quite as big as predicted this year, but it is still the third-largest ever mapped, a scientist said Saturday. Crabs, eels and other creatures usually found on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico are swimming in crowds on the surface because there is too little oxygen in their usual habitat, said Nancy Rabalais, chief scientist for northern Gulf hypoxia studies. "We very often see swarms of crabs, mostly blue crabs and their close relatives, swimming at the surface when the oxygen is low," she wrote in an e-mail from a research ship as it returned to Cocodrie from its annual measurement trip. Eels, which live in sediments 60 to 70 feet below the water surface, are an even less common sight, she said. For full story, go to: http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=13218

Effects of Nutrient Enrichment in the Nation’s Estuaries: A Decade of Change

Bricker, S., B. Longstaff, W. Dennison, A. Jones, K. Boicourt, C. Wicks, and J. Woerner. 2007. NOAA Coastal Ocean Program Decision Analysis Series No. 26. National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, Silver Spring, MD. 328 pp. For a direct link to this report, visit: http://ccma.nos.noaa.gov/publications/eutroupdate/

2007 Waterfowl Survey Shows Good News; Canvasbacks, redheads, and northern shovelers break traditional survey area records

Contact: Nicholas Throckmorton – US Fish & Wildlife Service – July 13, 2007 Preliminary results from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Canadian Wildlife Service's Waterfowl Breeding Population and Habitat Survey indicate a total duck population estimate of more than 41 million birds in the traditional survey area. This represents a 14 percent increase from 2006 and is 24 percent above the 1955-2006 average. "There's a lot of good news in the survey this year for the total duck population and waterfowl breeding habitat," said H. Dale Hall, Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "We have five species that are at record or near record highs, including canvasbacks, and there are good breeding conditions on the prairies. However, we remain concerned that pintails and scaup are well below long-term averages." The Waterfowl Breeding Population and Habitat Survey, the largest and most comprehensive survey of its kind in the world, samples 1.3 million square miles across the north- central United States, south-central and northern Canada, and Alaska. The survey estimates the number of ducks in the continent's most important nesting grounds. For full story, go to: http://www.fws.gov:80/news/NewsReleases/showNews.cfm?newsId= BFF1C2E5-08D7-793F-AE61EF990EE17CB6

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LINKS OF INTEREST

Washington Herp Atlas Now Complete and Online: The Atlas provides the most current information available on Washington's herpetofauna (amphibians and reptiles, or "herps") including information on life history, habitat, status, threats, management concerns and distribution. The Atlas also seeks additional information about Washington's amphibians and reptiles. Information obtained through this project will be used to track the current status of each species, document rare species occurrences, analyze population trends, identify critical habitat and establish conservation priorities. http://www.wa.gov/dnr/htdocs/fr/nhp/refdesk/herp/

Tiner, R.W. (compiler). 2002. Watershed-based Wetland Planning and Evaluation. A Collection of Papers from the Wetland Millennium Event (August 6-12, 2000; Quebec City, Quebec, Canada). Distributed by the Association of State Wetland Managers, Inc., Berne, NY. 141 pp. Available as a PDF file (WARNING: Large file: 6.36 mB)

Isolated Wetlands Bibliography. Literature Citations and Links (where available.) Additional citations welcome. Please contact James Robb (5/8/01)

Wetland Compensatory Mitigation Performance Literature Citations and Links. Does wetland compensatory mitigation work? We have put together this list of literature so that you may draw your own conclusions. Please let us know of any other studies related to this topic so that we may make this list as comprehensive as possible. (2/23/01)

Wetlands and Global Climate Change Abstracts available from "Wetlands and Global Climate Change at Québec 2000 - Millennium Wetland Event", August 6 - 12, 2000, Quebec City, Quebec Canada.

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