Need for the Program:
A major challenge in coordinated wetland restoration is that the responsibility for assessing wetland extent, abundance, and condition currently resides with multiple agencies, making comparison across wetland sites difficult. There are over a hundred wetlands of varying sizes in coastal Southern California and there is currently no monitoring program that tracks the collective condition and resiliency of wetlands in the region and how they are responding to stressors.
Download a 1-page fact sheet about the program here
Program Description:
The Southern California Wetlands Recovery Project Regional Monitoring Program aims to develop comparable approaches for coastal wetland monitoring and incorporate these into permit- and funding-required monitoring programs.
Comparable monitoring information is critical to evaluate whether the goals and objectives of the WRP Regional Strategy are being achieved, inform future funding decisions, and protect past investments in wetland restoration from the rapidly advancing impacts of sea level rise. Program goals include:
- Track the collective condition of coastal wetlands in the region and how they are responding to climate change stressors and development
- Help agencies assess coastal wetland resilience to address climate change effects and develop adaptation strategies
- Provide regulatory and funding agencies with a means to monitor wetlands in a comparable way, improve access to data, and better leverage efforts across programs to improve regional wetland inventories and condition assessments
- Utilize improved information on wetland condition and resilience in southern California to inform state and federal regulatory programs to help effectively manage, preserve, and restore highly impacted wetlands in southern California by improving information on wetland condition and performance
- Assess progress towards reaching the WRP goals for coastal wetland restoration, which are listed under the WRP Regional Strategy 2018
Project Outputs:
Phase 1 of the Regional Monitoring Program is funded through an EPA Wetland Program Development Grant. A Scientific Advisory Panel was assembled to provide guidance for the program and develop wetland health and resiliency indicators and metrics for the Program.
The development and formation of the WRP Regional Monitoring Program includes four elements:
- Development of a Coastal Wetland Sentinel Site Network. Summarizes recommendations for the development and maintenance of a statewide sentinel site network and provides recommendations for southern California sentinel sites.
The document is published as a technical report online here: Development of a Coastal Wetland Sentinel Site Network – Assessing Wetland Recovery: Building Capacity to Understand and Support Regional Wetland Health and Resilience
2. Monitoring for management: A monitoring strategy for southern California wetlands. Provides an overview of the monitoring strategy, monitoring questions, and priority indicators necessary to develop the WRP Regional Monitoring Program.
3. Applicability of Regional Monitoring for Agencies: Guidelines for Incorporating the WRP Regional Monitoring Program into Agency Programs. Provides agency-specific guidelines for applying the regional monitoring approach to permitted and funded projects.
4. Implementation strategy for the WRP Regional Monitoring Program. Outlines a plan to guide the rollout and coordination of a collaborative coastal wetland monitoring effort across wetlands in southern California.
We will be seeking review and input on these products as they are developed and sharing them broadly.
Partners on the project include:
