1. Wetland Monitoring What Do We Need? Integration of Wetland Monitoring and Wetland Management Wetlands and Waterways Program Maryland Dept. of the Environment

2. Maryland Departments of Environment, Natural Resources, Agriculture, Transportation involved in various wetland management activities Dept. of Environment: Regulatory programs in tidal and nontidal wetlands Agriculture and Forestry Mitigation Restoration Planning and technical assistance Monitoring Water Quality Standards

3. Wetland Monitoring and Assessment program, methods, and tools should support other management activities Maximize use of existing or routinely collected information Minimize uncoordinated or inconsistent approaches and use of additional agency resources Consolidate related information in data management system for multiple activities

4. Wetland Monitoring and Regulatory Program Implementation Focus on rapid assessment (Level 2) supplemented by GIS (Level 1) and intensive data sampling (Level 3) Consider condition and function Variety of reference sites Site specific data within watershed

5. Use information collected in regulatory permit process plant species, soils, hydrology, land use, wildlife use, degradation, functions ease of access Statewide coverage Supplement with other field inventories public lands GIS Other lands

6. Other Existing Information water quality, biological, stream stability, flood studies Management Plans Functional assessments Local surveys

7. Challenges to Compilation and Use of Monitoring Information in a Wetland Regulatory Program Lack of staff time Scattered information sources Various resource management goals Suggested solution….

8. Develop integrated data management system Existing system: proposed impacts authorized impacts wetlands, floodplains, sensitive species, archeological/historical sites, watershed Proposed system adds: wetland/water quality/biological assessment results reference sites, restoration sites, preservation areas management plan recommendations photos, design plans

9. Additional Resources Needed: Funding Programming expertise Data conversion and entry Field studies

10. Regulatory and Non-regulatory Management Benefits Improves targeting of restoration and protection areas Improves information exchange between programs Improves consistency of management decisions Improves efficiency of permit process