Delaware Estuary Wetlands Workgroup

 

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Over the past years, the Partnership has highlighted tidal wetlands as one of the premiere natural resources within the Delaware Estuary. Compared with other large American estuaries, our system has a higher diversity of tidal wetland types as well as a nearly continuous fringe of such marshes around the perimeter of the middle and lower estuary.  The ecological and economic services that are directly or indirectly furnished by these marshes are myriad: e.g., flood protection; nursery, forage and nesting habitats for fish and wildlife; water quality improvement.

The science and management community is now elevating tidal marshes as a lead indicator for environmental conditions in the Estuary.  As such, these habitats are being viewed as a prime candidate for establishing proactive environmental targets and policies that will help us maintain environmental integrity in the face of looming challenges associated with continued development (e.g. habitat conversion) and climate change (e.g., sea level rise).  We intend to treat our tidal marshes as a “common denominator” resource to be monitored, protected and restored in the same way that submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) is being considered as fundamental for environmental science and policy in the Chesapeake Bay.

Over the past year, the Partnership has worked to develop and implement a wetland strategy, with an initial focus on tidal marshes, that will attempt to improve monitoring and assessment of our tidal wetlands, and which will link to goal-setting for restoration, science and policy.

Within the region support was strong on the need to improve coordination and technical rigor devoted to wetland monitoring across the Delaware Estuary.  Until this time, there had been no single entity or group focused on tidal wetland issues at the watershed or estuary-wide scale; rather, each state and EPA region within the Delaware Estuary took their own approaches to wetland monitoring, which presented problems with reporting on overall wetland status and trends.

To address current and future needs related to wetland monitoring, assessment, science, restoration and policy, the Partnership recently launched the Delaware Estuary Wetland Workgroup (DEWWG).  This workgroup is affiliated with the STAC, and through its  membership it will also interface with the mid-Atlantic Wetland Workgroup (MAWWG) and national wetland programs.  The initial charge for the DEWWG has been to  perform an analysis of tidal wetland monitoring needs related to both extent (e.g., acreage) and condition (e.g., functionality and health) for the Estuary as part of the Delaware Bay Pilot for the National Water Quality Monitoring Network (PDE is a Steering Group member for this initiative).  By comparing these needs to the existing monitoring infrastructure for tidal marshes, a gap analysis has been developed in the fall 2007.  Beyond this first task, the DEWWG is assisting the Partnership in establishing improved indicators and goals related to tidal wetlands.

In 2009 PDE was awarded a grant from EPA’s Office of Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds.  The Development and Implementation of an Integrated Monitoring and Assessment Program for the Different Tidal Wetlands of the Delaware Estuary grant will focus on establishing a network of fixed sites as well as a regional rapid assessment method for tidal wetlands.  Outcomes will include new data on current tidal wetlands condition and a basis for future monitoring and assessment programs.  The DEWWG will help coordinate as well as participate in the various groups of this grant.

A Delaware Estuary Wetland Workgroup has also been established to oversee technical elements of this project. To learn more about the workgroup or the wetland grant, please contact Angela Padeletti at (800) 445-4935, extension 103, or apadeletti@DelawareEstuary.org.

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