NAWM

The Natural Floodplain Functions Alliance (NFFA) and the Wetland Mapping Consortium (WMC) are pleased to announce the release of their jointly developed report, “Strategies and an Action Plan for Protecting and Restoring Wetland and Floodplain Functions.” This report is the result of a multi-year initiative and a series of workshops that were developed to identify barriers to greater integration of wetland and floodplain management efforts and strategies for overcoming those barriers for nature-based solutions. The overall goal of the initiative was to support greater climate resiliency and, in turn, safer and healthier communities for all Americans.

The report is organized based on four pillar topics that were identified during workshops as being central to developing a path forward: policy, data, funding, and communication. The report documents workshop findings, policy recommendations, and suggested next steps.

The loss of functioning floodplains is contributing to water-resources management challenges across the nation, including increased flooding and erosion, poor water quality, drought, and loss of biodiversity. Functioning floodplains are a necessary solution to address the climate change and biodiversity crises that we face today. The strategies and recommendations included in the report are intended to provide a launching pad to reignite federal leadership and support for a unified national program and action plan for protecting and restoring the natural and beneficial functions of wetlands and floodplains. 

The link below will ask for your email address to download the Strategies and an Action Plan for Protecting and Restoring Wetland and Floodplain Functions report. If you do not want to enter your email address, please contact Sharon (sharon@nawm.org) for the link to the report. 

 Thank you to our Generous Sponsors!

Host Sponsor

The mission of the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission is stewardship of the state’s fish, wildlife, park, and outdoor recreation resources in the best long-term interests of the people and those resources.

 

Kingfisher Sponsors

Ducks Unlimited is dedicated to conserving North America's waterfowl habitats and has conserved more than 15 million acres.

Cattails Environmental is a consulting company working primarily in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Kansas providing clients with services related to the Clean Water Act, National Environmental Policy Act and Endangered Species Act

At Westervelt Ecological Services (WES), we are dedicated to implementing restoration projects that provide long-lasting benefits for future generations. We challenge ourselves to develop big, complex projects, that maximize local benefits beyond habitat restoration to flood management, water quality, and climate change.

 

 

 

• When: March 1-2, 2023

• Where: Online via Microsoft Teams

• Duration: 2 days; 1-5pm PST each day

• Who: Tribes and states in EPA Region 9, current and past EPA grant recipients, other major regional wetland/401 certifying authority agencies.

• Why:

• • (Re)-introduce Wetland Program Development Grants (WPDG);
  • Provide information and inspiration; and
  • Provide examples of past projects (and how they weave into EPA’s Core Elements Framework, Regional priorities, and current standardized methodologies).

AGENDA (PDF Download)
(All times listed are in Pacific Standard Time)

Abstracts are available by clicking here.
Presenter bios are available by clicking here.
PPTs can be downloaded by clicking on the presenter(s) name in the agenda below.
 

Wednesday, March 1^st: General Program Overview & Updates

1:00pm – 1:25pm EPA updates

• • • • Introductions (Marla Stelk)
      • Organization overview, wetlands program overview (Sahrye Cohen)
      • WOTUS status update
      • CWA 401 Rule update

1:25pm – 2:10pm Wetland Program Development Grants

• • • • WPDGs: FY23/24 RFA & Regional Priorities (Sarvy Mahdavi)
      • Partnering to Enhance State, Tribal & Territories’ Wetland Programs (Rebecca Dils)
      • Regional Wetland Program Development Grants: Justice40 and Climate (Myra Price)
      • Using EPA’s EJScreen & Introduction into CEQ’s CEJST (Matthew Lee)

2:10pm – 2:20pm BREAK

2:20pm – 3:20pm Presentations from Current/Prior Grant Recipients

2:20pm – 2:40pm Buena Vista Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians Wetlands Inventory, Monitoring, and Assessment Program (Hannah Savage & Emily Moloney)

2:40pm – 3:00pm Conservation of California’s Great Valley Vernal Pool Landscapes: User’s Guide and Reference Manual (John Vollmar)

3:00pm – 3:20pm Nutrient Thresholds to Protect Water Quality, Coral Reefs, and Nearshore Fisheries (Peter Houk)

3:20pm – 3:30pm BREAK

3:30pm – 4:30pm Presentations from Current/Prior Grant Recipients

3:30pm – 3:50pm Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe Wetland Program Development (Kaylie Wilmot)

3:50pm – 4:10pm Using the EPA Core Element Framework to Guide the Prioritization of Headwater Wetland Restoration in Support of Climate Resiliency in Yurok Country (Matthew Hanington, Christine Cosby, & Thomas Starkey Owens)
4:10pm – 4:30pm SFEI – Building Capacity of the California Wetland Program to Protect and Restore Vernal Pools (Sarah Pearce & Sarah Lowe)

4:30pm – 5:00pm Closing/Questions?

Thursday, March 2^nd: Enhancing State and Tribal Programs/WPDGs

1:00pm – 2:00pm Brief Agenda Review and Intros (Marla Stelk)

WPDG Core Element Monitoring and Assessment: Level 1-2-3 Framework (Jennifer Siu & Joe Morgan)

2:00pm – 2:10pm BREAK

2:10pm – 3:10pm Presentations from Current/Prior Grant Recipients

2:10pm – 2:30pm Developing the Wetland Recovery Project Regional Monitoring Program: Building Capacity for Assessing Wetland Recovery Efforts in Southern California (Maravilla Clemens)

2:30pm – 2:50pm Evaluation and Regional Comparison of USEPA Intensive, Level-3 Monitoring: Consolidating Coastal Wetland Datasets and Programs (Christine Whitcraft)

2:50pm – 3:10pm Melding Modern and Conventional Approaches Toward Developing Hawaii’s First Protection and Restoration Strategy for Wetlands (Devon Aguiar & Troy Sakihara)

3:10pm – 3:20pm BREAK

3:20pm – 4:20pm Presentations from Current/Prior Grant Recipients

3:20pm – 3:40pm Nevada Wetland Program Development – Inventory, Data Management Tools, and Partner Engagement (Chantal Iosso & Kristin Szabo)

3:40pm – 4:00pm Prioritizing Stream Protection, Restoration and Management Actions Using Landscape Modeling and Spatial Analysis (Eric Stein)

4:00pm – 4:20pm SF Estuary Wetlands Regional Monitoring Program – Designing monitoring for adaptive management through stakeholder collaboration (Alexandra Thomsen)

4:20pm – 4:50pm Discussion: How to submit a successful grant application

Wetland Program Development Grants: Overview and Tricks & Tips (Myra Price)

4:50pm – 5:00pm Closing/Questions?

Comprehensive Local Planning and Programs: Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s Approach

Tuesday, December 6, 2016 - 3:00 p.m. ET

DESCRIPTION

Comprehensive planning and visioning for floodplains can only be done on the local level. Many communities lack a vision or don’t know where to begin. This webinar will demonstrate how Charlotte-Mecklenburg developed and implemented a local resilience vision, and created plans and programs to implement it over the past 20 years. It takes a whole lot more than just funding to truly become more resilient.

This webinar provided ideas and examples that can be implemented to varying degrees in any community. Some of the topics in this webinar included; community visions for managing flood risk that promote long term resilience, communities acceptable risk level, adapt to flood risk changes, incentivizing and implementing mitigation at the local level, making your mitigation planning more useful, communicating risk that will lead to actions, showing results.

Flood Risk Assessment and Risk Reduction Plan (January 2012)

PRESENTER

• Tim Trautman, PE, CFM, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services, Engineering & Mitigation Program Manager [PRESENTATION PDF]
  
  

Please click only once on each video recording to view in this window.

October Federal Update: The FEMA Proposed Rule for FFRMS and Update on WRDA

Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - 3:00 p.m. EDT

• Larry Larson, Senior Policy Advisor, Association of State Floodplain Managers

Improving the Quantity and Quality of Coastal Wetlands in the U.S. South Atlantic

INTRODUCTION

• Marla Stelk, Policy Analyst, ASWM and Jeanne Christie, ASWM [PRESENTATION PDF]
  

PRESENTERS

• Kristine Cherry, Governors' South Atlantic Alliance (GSAA) [INTRODUCTION PDF] [PRESENTATION PDF]
• Kim Matthews, RTI International [PRESENTATION PDF]
  
• Jason Doll, Moffatt & Nichol [PRESENTATION PDF]

ABSTRACT

The USFWS and NOAA report that coastal wetlands in the US are being lost at a rate six times faster than wetlands in the rest of the country. Impacts to coastal wetlands are a challenge for every level of government and governance, and while many regulatory authorities fall within the jurisdiction of national and state government agencies, there are knowledge gaps at the regional level in understanding trends and environmental, physical, and anthropogenic factors that impact wetlands. State, federal, and non-profit partners have come together through the Governors’ South Atlantic Alliance to address the regional-scale needs of coastal wetlands conservation efforts. The webinar will review the objectives and the approaches of three main components of the GSAA coastal wetlands program, and the progress to date from each.

Project #1 Coastal Wetlands Monitoring

Objectives

• Improve coordination of fragmented monitoring programs
• Improve comparability of monitoring programs
• Improve data awareness and information sharing

Project #2 Coastal Watershed Management

Objectives

• Increase local capacity for development of watershed restoration plans
• Facilitate implementation of Coastal Water Quality BMPs

Project #3 Living Shorelines

Objectives

• Develop a network of living shorelines practitioners in the Southeast
• Build awareness of the scope of living shorelines activities in the region
• Identify gaps in knowledge and capacity that, if filled, would expand the appropriate use of living shorelines 

Please click only once on each video recording to view in this window.

 

Funding for Floodplain Restoration: Breaking Down Incentives to Develop Floodplains & Recent FEMA Policy Updates

September 1, 2016 - 3:00 p.m. ET

HOST

Association of State Floodplain Managers

PRESENTER

• Zachary Christin, Project Director, Earth Economics

ABSTRACT

Last May, FEMA released a memorandum that outlined how the agency is broadening authorization of natural solutions for flood mitigation projects. Under the new policy, FEMA expanded eligibility of pre-mitigation project types for drought and wildfire disasters, which include groundwater recharge and reforestation. The agency is also allowing ecosystem service values to be applied to benefit-cost analysis of these pre-mitigation activities. The takeaway message: FEMA now funds restoration projects that mitigate the effects of disasters.

FEMA’s recent policy update marks their second major milestone as a leader in addressing a future under a changing climate. With programs in nearly $24 billion of debt, FEMA’s change was imminent, and further reform may be necessary. Other federal agencies must follow suit as we continue to experience the development of floodplains that exacerbate flood damages and inhibit ecological functions.

This presentation will begin with a discussion of U.S. regulatory policy related to floodplain management and the disincentives that allow development of floodplains to persist. The discussion will follow with a path moving forward: Highlighting success cases at the federal level and offering solutions to existing policy.

Living Shorelines: Lessons Learned and New Opportunities

June 7, 2016 - 3:00 p.m. ET

INTRODUCTION 

• Marla Stelk, Policy Analyst, ASWM and Jeanne Christie, ASWM [PRESENTATION PDF]

PRESENTERS

• Suzanne Simon, Strategic Programs Manager, Restore America’s Estuaries [PRESENTATION PDF]
• Bill Sapp, Senior Attorney, Southern Environmental Law Center [POWERPOINT PRESENTATION]
• Tracy Skrabal, Southeast Regional Manager and Coastal Scientist, North Carolina Coastal Federation [PRESENTATION PDF]
  
• Lee Anne Wilde, Living Shorelines Program Managers, Galveston Bay Foundation [PRESENTATION PDF]

ABSTRACTS

Suzanne Simon, Restore America’s Estuaries
Whether known as living shorelines, soft stabilization, soft armoring, or green shores, this suite of techniques provides an opportunity for property owners to address shoreline erosion while also providing ecosystem and habitat benefits. Ms. Simon will provide an overview from a national perspective regarding these approaches. She will also highlight findings, tools, opportunities, and resources for people wanting information, either for themselves or property owners.

Bill Sapp, Southern Environmental Law Center
The proposed nationwide permits have finally hit the streets. As predicted there is a NWP 13, as well as a new NWP for living shorelines. I will be discussing the good, the bad, and the ugly in each of these permits. I will also be discussing the importance of commenting on these permits during the 60 day comment window. It is critical that the Corps gets these permits right because we need to head off the growing epidemic of shoreline hardening facing our coasts and rivers.

Tracy Skrabal, North Carolina Coastal Federation
This presentation will provide information and “lessons learned” for living shorelines projects in and around North Carolina. With decades of experience as a backdrop, Ms. Skrabal will discuss challenges and opportunities for living shorelines projects. In addition, the presentation will provide Ms. Skrabal’s perspective and experience in advocating for permitting changes for these efforts.

Lee Anne Wilde, Galveston Bay Foundation
This presentation will use as a case study a living shoreline site on Trinity Bay near Anahuac, TX. Galveston Bay Foundation and the landowner have been working for many years to find ways to control the erosion of his shoreline in ways that enhance habitat and water quality. Several methods have been tried in this high energy environment. This presentation will look at what has worked and what hasn’t discussing lessons learned along the way. In addition, the presentation will address why GBF sought a Nationwide 27 permit for habitat creation as opposed to a Nationwide 13 for bank stabilization in this instance as well as many others.


Please click only once on each video recording to view in this window.

The Nature Conservancy's Emiquon: Restoring Functional Floodplain for Nature & People

April 28, 2016 - 3:00 p.m.-4:30 p.m. ET

HOST

Association of State Floodplain Managers

PRESENTER

• K. Douglas Blodgett, Director of River Conservation, Illinois Chapter of The Nature Conservancy [PRESENTATION PDF]
  

ABSTRACT

In large-floodplain river systems, such as the Illinois River, the dynamic connection between the river and its floodplain contributes to important ecological processes and habitats that provide a wide variety of ecosystem services and support diversity and abundance. Most of these services were minimized or even lost completely when fertile floodplains were isolated by levees and drained for agriculture nearly a century ago. At The Nature Conservancy’s 6700-acre Emiquon Preserve along the Illinois River, we are working with partners on restoration and management of a formerly leveed, draied, and intensively farmed floodplain to reestablish many of the ecosystem services it formerly provided. Restoration began in 2007 and results to date have been impressive. Over 265 bird species have been documented and peak one-day densities of water birds are approaching 200,000. In 2016, a managed connection between the restored floodplain and the river is being completed to provide water control needed for restoring a more natural hydrology to sustain the high-quality habitats and to facilitate movements of aquatic organisms. Through effectual partnerships with agencies, universities and other NGOs, research and monitoring at Emiquon is advancing our understanding, restoration, and management of floodplains and the many benefits they provide for nature and people.

Please click only once on each video recording to view in this window.

 

The Ecology, Engineering & Economics of Natural Coastal Defenses

Tuesday, March 1, 2016 - 3:00 p.m. - 4:30pm ET

INTRODUCTION

• Marla Stelk, Policy Analyst, ASWM and Jeanne Christie, ASWM [PRESENTATION PDF]

PRESENTER

• Mike Beck, The Nature Conservancy and Adjunct Professor in Ocean Sciences, University of California Santa Cruz [PRESENTATION PDF]

ABSTRACT

The risks and the costs associated with coastal hazards are increasing both from coastal development and climate change. Coastal and marine habitats, particularly reefs and wetlands can substantially reduce exposure and vulnerability to coastal hazards, providing natural protection from risk. Yet the value of these systems as natural and nature-based defenses is still not fully recognized, and they continue to be lost and degraded. This webinar session will provide participants with: (a) a synopsis from a new World Bank Guidance Note on the coastal protection role of reefs and mangroves and the recommended approaches for valuing these benefits; (b) results from a global analysis that uses the recommended approaches to quantify the costs of flooding from coral reef loss; and (c) Results from cost:benefit analyses with TNC and Swiss Re that quantitatively compare natural and artificial defenses across the entire the Gulf of Mexico. 

Please click only once on each video recording to view in this window.

View Past Natural Floodplain Functions Alliance Webinars

PDF List of Past Natural Floodplain Functions Alliance Webinar Recordings

Maps of Potential Wetland Extent for Selected Streams in Indiana

Held Wednesday, December 21, 2016 - 3:00 pm Eastern

View Recorded Webinar

INTRODUCTION

• Marla Stelk, Policy Analyst, Association of State Wetland Managers

PRESENTER

• Kathleen Fowler, U.S. Geological Survey [PRESENTATION PDF]
  

ABSTRACT

Project in cooperation with U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Indianapolis, Indiana

Wetlands serve many ecological and hydrological functions. The NRCS Wetland Reserve Program planning criteria state for a site to be a wetland eligible for a restoration in agricultural land, it needs be in a zone with sustained or frequent flooding for a period of 7 consecutive days on average at least once every 2 years (a recurrence interval called the 7MQ2).

The objectives of this project are to expand the library of 7QM2 potential wetland extent maps in Indiana; to make existing and new maps in the library available through an on-line public map viewer; to document software for 7QM2 map preparation; and to publish results of field verification of the maps, along with new maps by USGS.

BIO

Kathleen Fowler has a Bachelor’s Degree in Geology from Indiana University. Her first major work experience was in the oil fields of Texas and Louisiana as a mud logging geologist. She began her career with the USGS as a field technician and then a hydrologist.

Kathleen has experience in both ground-water and surface-water hydrology. She has created GIS databases for military bases within Indiana. She has applied GIS techniques to classify hydrogeologic data for use in the ground-water model, MODFLOW. She led projects to compile hydrogeologic and water-quality data for the St. Joseph Aquifer System and sediment transport along a stream in that area. For Indiana’s Source Water Assessment, Kathleen surveyed and described intakes at most of Indiana’s surface-water suppliers. She has participated in mercury studies in litterfall, precipitation, and streams. Her most recent work has involved flood inundation mapping, low-flow characteristics estimation, and regional regression analysis for low-flow estimation at ungagged sites. She is an active member in Indiana Water Resources Association and is a Licensed Professional Geologist.


Please click only once on each video recording to view in this window.

 
Mapping Coastal Storm Surge Flooding and Marsh Structure

Held Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - 3:00 pm Eastern

View Recorded Webinar

PRESENTERS

• Elijah Ramsey III, U.S. Geological Survey
• Amina Rangoonwala, U.S. Geological Survey
  

ABSTRACTS

Developing the tools for assessing and mapping marsh (and grassland) canopy structure – Elijah Ramsey III, U.S. Geological Survey

The capability to map marsh structure started with developing field methods that provided quantitative and reproducible 3-dimentional representations of marsh canopy structure. Methods of field collection were standardized over numerous studies and conversion of those standardized field measurements to vertical profiles of leaf area index (LAI) and average leaf angle distribution (LAD) was accomplished without user supplied estimates. LAI integrated to a volume metric and LAD were combined with polarimetric SAR data to create empirical relationships that were then used to create maps of marsh structure.

Hurricane Surge Extent, Persistence and Marsh Condition Change – Amina Rangoonwala, U.S. Geological Survey

Working to support coastal resilience, our studies have focused on providing resource management with effective strategies for identifying latent impacts to coastal resources. Within that effort, we have studied the capabilities of radar to map subcanopy flooding and its persistence in coastal marshes. We have also used optical to show how surge can cause widespread fresh and saline marsh dieback. Here we use a sequence of post landfall radar based surge extents to calculate surge persistence and link that to optical based pre to post landfall marsh live biomass change.

BIOS

Elijah Ramsey III is a principal investigator of terrestrial and coastal ocean remote sensing and image processing in the U. S. Geological Survey, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center (formerly NWRC), Lafayette, Louisiana. He received his B.S. in Chemistry at the University of Oregon, his M.S. in Geophysics from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia, and his Ph.D. from the Department of Geography at the University of South Carolina. His applied research is focused on producing consistent biophysical information directly relevant to sustaining critical natural resources that support the well-being of human and wildlife populations. As part of this focus, his work integrates data from passive to active and optical to radar systems that advance the response and strategic monitoring of natural resources and the human populations and facilities that occupy these environments.

Amina Rangoonwala received her M.Sc degree in Physics from the University of Karachi, Pakistan in 1984. After immigrating to the United States in 2000, she worked as a remote sensing specialist contractor at USGS National Wetlands Research Center, Lafayette, Louisiana until becoming an employ of USGS as an Earth Science Remote Sensing Geophysicist in 2014. She has worked on projects applying hyperspectral image analysis to determine the onset and progression of vegetation decline, detection of the invasive species occurrences, and leaf optics measurements for ground base validation. Her work also involves the integration of optical and radar satellite data to map the relationship between flood inundation extent and duration and marsh condition and the development of polarimetric radar methods for mapping canopy structure. She is called to map river and storm flooding in the coastal region of the central Gulf of Mexico during emergency activations of the International Charter.

Please click only once on each video recording to view in this window.