Sustainable Wetland Management Strategy

1. Sustainable Wetland Management Strategy Steering Committee Partnership for the Delaware Estuary October 28, 2011

2. Tidal Wetlands

3. Regional Management Strategy for Tidal Wetlands • Why Needed? • Importance of coastal wetlands • Information gaps • What Has PDE been doing? • Strategic Priority • Wetland Monitoring & Assessment • What next? • Strawman Wetland Strategy • - scientific plan • - operations & funding plan Desired Outcome, Discussion

4. Tidal Wetlands A Signature Trait of System Near Contiguous Band Diverse: Freshwater Tidal Marshes Brackish Marshes Salt Marshes Benefits Flood Protection Fish and Wildlife Natural Areas Carbon Sequestration Water Quality

5. Wetland Strategy – Why Needed? • Coastal wetlands are: • a hallmark feature of the Delaware Estuary because of • both their diversity and sheer extent • critical for sustaining fish and wildlife, protecting against • flooding, preserving water quality, etc. • one of the most degraded habitats due to past land use • practices and degradation, now increasingly threatened • by future sea level rise. • Tracking and understanding the health and acreage of coastal wetlands is a top priority for coastal managers

6. White Paper Top Ten (PDE 2006)

7. State of the Estuary Report 2008 Acreage? no recent, consistent, high resolution data across the estuary Condition? no data

8. Tidal Wetland Projections – PDE/IEc 2100 2000 • We predict >26% loss of tidal wetlands (42,558 ha, now believed too low) • We predict >60,000 metric tons/year of lost primary production (services)

9. Water Quality - Wetland Interactions • Alters Vegetation Type • Impairs Condition • Affects Accretion • Increases Vulnerability • Sinks for Sediments • Sinks for Nutrients • Detoxify Some Contaminants • Sinks for Pathogens ? Will nutrient criteria need to be more stringent if many/most wetlands are lost?

10. Where Will Tidal Wetlands Survive? Sediment Supply Energy, Erosion Primary Productivity Wetland Survival Sea Level Nutrients

11. Tidal Wetlands - NEP Priority State of Estuary Reporting Regulatory Decision-Making On-the-Ground Projects Water Quality Management Fish and Wildlife Management Wetlands Climate Adaptation Restoration Planning

12. Wetland Strategy – Why Needed? • Insufficient information • The lack of an effective estuary-wide wetland management program prevents us from tracking important changes, understanding and addressing impairments, and making the best possible decisions about management and restoration investments, in the face of tremendous challenges.

13. Wetland Strategy – What Have we been doing? • 2006 White Paper – top priority • 2007 PDE Strategic Plan – top priority • 2007 NWQMN DE Bay Pilot – top priority, first strategy • 2008 State of Estuary – priority indicator • 2008 Created STAC Wetland Workgroup (DEWWG) • 2008 Designed wetland monitoring program (DEWMAP) • 2009 Training, grant-writing, preliminary fieldwork • 2009 Partnered with DNREC, ANSP • 2010 Partnered with Barnegat Bay Partnership, formed MACWA • 2010 Completed first rapid assessment study in PA (RAM) • 2010 Established first long-term monitoring stations (SSIM) • 2011 approximately 20% of estuary assessed with RAM • 2011 Five monitoring stations now installed in DE Estuary (SSIM) • Also - Numerous workshops held, coordination with national wetland assessment and non-tidal studies, etc.

14. Mid-Atlantic Coastal Wetland Assessment Integrated Monitoring of Tidal Wetlands for Water Quality and Habitat Management and Restoration Planning Freshwater Tidal Marsh Salt Marsh

15. Guidance from EPA Census data on acreage, estimated condition On the ground rapid data on condition, stressors Intensive studies on condition, function, stress effects Intensive monitoring at fixed stations Long-term monitoring of function, stressors, fixed sites Level IV

16. Tier 1 Example Percentage Loss of Emergent Tidal Marsh 1996-2006

17. Tier 1 Satellite Data – Kearney and Riter 1993 Percent vegetation 2006

18. Tier 2 Rapid Assessments

19. RAM DE MidTRAM (Jacobs et al.)3 Attributes: • Buffer Integrity • Hydrologic Integrity • Habitat/Bio Integrity

20. PA Tidal Wetlands – Condition Summary Maurice Tidal Wetlands – Condition Summary

21. RAM – Lessons Learned 2010- 2011 • Most tidal wetlands are degraded in condition, especially in PA. • Some stressors found in the upper estuary, such as trash smothering, need more study • The DE method was adapted to include shoreline condition (erosion, alterations) • Each system is unique: the Maurice may be more impaired by nutrients and coastal erosion, whereas PA and northern DE wetlands are more impaired by development and pollution

22. Future RAM Strategy2009 – 2018Contingent on FundingLink to other Tiers

23. Tier 4 Station Monitoring

24. Metrics Water Quality Elevation and Sediment Budget Biogeochemical Cycling Plant Community Integrity Carbon Storage Dominant Fauna Integrity Stations

25. MACWA SSIM StationsDelaware Estuary Tidal Wetlands Non-Tidal Wetlands SSIM Stations (Priority) SSIM Stations (Secondary) SSIM Stations (Pending) Villanova Stations DNREC Stations

26. Dennis Creek, NJ SET Installation

27. Initial SET reading Marker horizons Slide credit: Dr. Tracy Quirk

28. Elevation • Relative elevation of each SET benchmark - use barcode level 2. Elevation relative to a geodetic control point - highest accuracy using barcode level from SET benchmark to a control point Slide credit: Dr. Tracy Quirk

29. Water and soil Chl a Slide credit: Dr. Tracy Quirk

30. Soil Organic Matter INITIAL POINTS FOR LONG-TERM DATA salt marsh tidal fresh Tinicum Christina Water Column Solids salt marsh Maurice Dennis tidal fresh Slide credit: Dr. Tracy Quirk

31. Tidal Creek Nutrients Nitrate + Nitrite Tinicum Christina Ammonium Maurice Dennis

32. Partners Academy of Natural Sciences Barnegat Bay Estuary Program DNREC EPA HQ, Regions2 and 3 NJDEP NJ Coastal Zone Program PA Coastal Zone Program PDE (Coordinator) Rutgers University Villanova University

33. We Are Grateful to Our Funders: EPA Headquarters EPA Region 2 EPA National Estuary Program DE Dept. of Natural Resources Environ. Control NJ Coastal Management Program PA Coastal Management Program

34. PDE Wetland Strategy • Principles: • Coordinated – PDE-led, many partners (states, ANS-Drexel) • Sustainable • Network with adjacent watersheds • Outcomes: • Improved status and trends reporting for health and extent • Strengthened understanding of stressor-response relationships • More effective and strategic efforts to address impairments • Coordinated management, regulatory decision-making • Smarter prioritization of restoration and enhancement projects • Better mitigation • Established baseline for addressing future changes and challenges

35. Wetland Strategy – What Next? Strawman*scientific plan (STAC); sustainable funding plan (EIC/Steering)

36. Wetland Strategy – Action Requested • Based on feedback received from its NEP partners so far, there is agreement that: • PDE is well-positioned to coordinate the strategy, focusing on • coastal wetlands. • Implementation of the strategy would help NEP partners meet their • wetland goals • Implementation would also provide an important element of the • comprehensive water quality monitoring strategy that EPA is • encouraging the states to have in place • To implement and sustain this strategy, PDE has short term (2011), • mid-term (next 1-2 years), and long term (2 years on) needs

37. Wetland Strategy – Action Requested • Short Term Needs(2011): • A joint request from PDE and its NEP partners to: • - USFWS for updated NWI data for areas where it is out of date • - NOAA for improved LU/LC resolution and assistance in generating a 1 • meter contour line • or some other instruction/ proposal from NEP partners for obtaining these data • 2) Support for PDE and partners to sustain monitoring at DE and PA stations in 2012

38. Wetland Strategy – Action Requested • Mid-Term Needs(next 1-2 years): • For EPA R2 and HQ to continue making this work a priority for funding • on an ongoing basis • Access to EPA R3 wetland grant funds, which PDE is currently not eligible to receive directly (could involve coordinating with DRBC, PWD, and/or DNREC as co-applicants) • 3) Participation on the PDE wetland workgroup by representatives from the 3 states, EPA R2 and R3, and USFWS

39. Wetland Strategy – Action Requested • Long Term Needs(2 years on): • An agreement with PA, DE and NJ whereby the states either fund core wetland monitoring and assessment by PDE, or perform those assessments/monitoring directly, or some combination of both (possibly using 106 funding from EPA) • 2) Support for a federal request to sustain the strategy for a minimum of five years as a national pilot study for cooperative, interstate assessment of imperiled coastal wetlands

40. Regional Management Strategy for Tidal Wetlands • Why Needed? • Importance of coastal wetlands • Information gaps • What Has PDE been doing? • Strategic Priority • Wetland Monitoring & Assessment • What next? • Strawman Wetland Strategy • - scientific plan • - operations & funding plan Desired Outcome, Discussion