Final Year of the Wetland Mapping and Monitoring Project

This year marks the final year of the Wetland Mapping and Monitoring Project, and the team hopes to accomplish several goals:

Each of the six priority sites that were established last year will be re-mapped, including conducting a vegetation survey and collecting basic hydrologic data; this will provide the team with a more holistic idea of how these wetlands function. Each of the six selected sites will be visited seasonally and within a week of one another, ensuring there is little variation regarding weather between sites. The winter and spring visits already occurred in January 2020 and April 2020. The summer visit will occur in July 2020, followed by the fall visit in November 2020.

Additionally, the team will be conducting a primary data analysis of data collected from the instrumentation site that was established last year. Instrumentation was installed at one priority wetland in order to determine if the site is connected to the aquifer below and if it is, is it either recharging or discharging that aquifer. All data will be comparatively analyzed to determine if the instrumentation is effectively assessing the specified wetland and has a direct connection to groundwater recharge. Following the data analysis, the 2019 Prioritizing Wetland Systems to Install Instrumentation in the RDN report will be updated with the results. Further, depending on the success of the instrumentation and pending funding, the team hopes to install instrumentation at two more of the priority sites this year.

The team will be also be producing a 5-year summary report that will provide any findings over the last five years, as well as identify means of implementing policies into local wetlands, costs and recommendations pertaining to potential geophysical and cross-sectional work, and next steps for the project.

Lastly, the RDN and MABRRI will be working together to update the ArcGIS online map.