Evaluating an Improved Systems Approach to Crediting: Consideration of Wetland Ecosystem Services
March 22, 2022 - March 23, 2022Annapolis, MD
This workshop convened in-person on Tuesday and Wednesday, March 22-23rd. There was a virtual option for those who want to participate virtually.
This workshop was formerly known as ‘Evaluating a Systems Approach to BMP Crediting’.
The Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) hosted a two-day workshop to explore specific management actions for improvements to the current National Environmental Information Exchange Network (NEIEN) system to better account for habitat-based data and co benefits, and for incorporation of landscape consideration and application of a systems approach to maximizing benefits from multi-habitat projects to improve restoration outcomes.
Original FY21 STAC Request for Proposal:
In addition to TMDL requirements, which are intended to improve water quality and support aquatic habitat through sediment and nutrient reduction, the Chesapeake Bay Agreement (CBA) has numerous other direct goals for improving habitat and living resources. Best Management Practices (BMPs) implemented to meet the TMDL, if not appropriately designed for specific site and landscape conditions and consideration of other CBA goals, may result in unnecessary resource tradeoffs and unintended consequences, and unintentionally slow progress toward meeting other goals. Wetland ecosystems are an illustrative and useful example for considering a more holistic perspective on BMP placement in the landscape and impacts on habitat.
Two specific confounding issues arise in efforts to achieve the Bay wetlands goal: 1) the idea that restoration is driven, and incentivized and accounted for, in order to meet the TMDL’s WQ benefits, leaving habitat benefits undervalued; and 2) there is often tension between competing restoration priorities and financial resources among different BMP types that include wetlands, such as wetland restoration/creation/rehabilitation, stream restoration, and creating or restoring forest buffers. The ecosystem services of wetlands cannot be fully defined or described by any single specific function, such as N/P/sediment load reduction, or a specific species habitat.
To address these issues, we proposed a workshop to evaluate: 1) opportunities to incentivize habitat benefits in relation to TMDL and water quality outcomes, and that are part of Chesapeake Bay Agreement commitments; and 2) the efficacy of a more holistic “systems approach” to BMP accounting, specifically how wetlands are considered in multiple BMPs and multiple workgroups and GITs, and how wetland BMP functions are influenced by other BMP types in the connected landscape. Recommendations from this workshop would include suggestions for how to approach restoration projects at a systems level (e.g. creek, shoreline reach, watershed) in order to maximize synergies for multiple ecological outcomes and accurately calculate pollutant reductions along with habitat value to restoration projects that include multiple habitats, as well as recommend policies to incentivize habitat benefits and outcomes in addition to nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment reduction goals.
Workshop Steering Committee:
- Pam Mason, VIMS, Wetland Workgroup Co-Chair
- Denise Clearwater, MDE
- Alison Santoro, MD DNR, Stream Health Workgroup Co-Chair
- Greg Noe, USGS/STAC
- Dave Goerman, PA DEP LinkedIn
- Alicia Berlin, USGS, Black Duck Action Team Co-Chair
Presentations:
Session 1: Accounting
- Nonpoint Source TMDL Incentives and Impacts Other Goals – Jeff Sweeney (EPA)
- Overview of Current BMP crediting – Olivia Devereux (Devereux Consulting, WQGIT)
- Overview of Crediting from the Jurisdictional Perspective – Greg Sandi (MDE)
Session 2: Landscape/Systems Approach
- Synergistic Bay Goals – Carin Bisland (EPA)
- Wetland Projects in Agricultural Landscapes – Steve Strano (NRCS)
- Coastal Wetlands Ranking for Co-Benefits – Pamela Mason (VIMS)
- Watershed Scale Restoration – Ben Hayes (Bucknell)
- Large Scale Projects – Rick Bennett (FWS)
- Watershed-level Effects of Nutrient Sinks: Lessons from analysis of riparian buffers – Matt Baker (UMBC)
Session 3: Wetlands Projects and Co-Benefits and Tradeoffs
- MS4/urban Impacts – Sujay Kaushal (UMD
- Systems Degradation – Dave Goerman (PA)
- Consequences of BMP Crediting, Resource Tradeoffs, and Need For an Ecosystem Approach – Denise Clearwater (MDE)
- Unintended Consequences – Michael Williams (UMD)
- Ecosystem Approach – Denise Clearwater (MDE)
- Unintended Consequences– Michael Williams (UMD)
- SAV – Brooke Landry (MD DNR)
- Marine Fisheries – David O’Brien (NOAA)
- Waterfowl – Jake McPherson (DU)
- Forestry and Streams – Anne Hairston-Strang (DNR)
- Amphibians – Paula Henry (USGS)
- Brook trout – Steve Faulkner (USGS)
Session 4: Management Implications and Recommendation Development
- Introduction and Overview of Where We Want to Go – Greg Noe (USGS)
- Fairfax Recovery Wheel – Meghan Fellows (Fairfax County)
- Ecosystem Services Quantification – Ryann Rossi (EPA)
For more information, please contact Meg Cole, STAC Coordinator, at colem@chesapeake.org.