The Status of Perennial Estuarine Wetlands in the State of California
California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) | September 13th, 2008
The statewide initiative to monitor the condition of wetlands has produced a report on the status of wetlands in California’s estuaries. The report is the most comprehensive evaluation ever conducted on the overall health of any class of wetlands in California. It provides an estimate of how much estuarine wetland exists in California and the health of those wetlands.
Benefits of the Report
The report offers multiple benefits to wetland managers and policy-makers:
- It establishes a baseline of data in estuaries against which to measure future progress toward the state’s “No Net Loss of Wetlands” policy. Legislators and other policy makers can use the data to determine if wetland protection policies and programs are working and if the public is getting a return for its investment in wetlands.
- It helps local wetland managers compare the condition of their estuarine wetland or restoration project against the baseline for their region.
- It satisfies some important legal requirements, including a federal requirement that the state report on the status of wetlands to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) every two years.
The Basics
The report studied four questions:
Where are the state’s estuarine wetlands, and how much do we have?
What is the condition of existing estuarine wetlands statewide, and how does their condition vary by region?
What are the primary causes of stress to wetland health, and do those causes vary among different coastal regions?
How does the overall health of estuarine wetland restoration projects compare with similar wetlands in their region?
Keywords
ecosystem management, Surface Water Ambient Monitoring Program (SWAMP), wetlands