Watershed-based Wetland Planning and Evaluation

Setting priorities for protection and restoration efforts is necessary whenever resources are not sufficient to target all sites simultaneously. When this occurs priorities should be set to maximize the ecological benefit gained from available resources. Prioritizing protection and restoration efforts in this fashion is hampered, however, by a lack of information that can be used by resource managers. This paper describes an approach to prioritizing wetland restoration or protection that works around these constraints. A benefit/cost framework is used to deal with limited effort, and judgement indicators are employed to address information constraints. These two components have been incorporated into the Synoptic Approach developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Synoptic Approach was specifically designed as a prioritization approach that could incorporate best professional judgement in cases where information and resources are otherwise limited. The approach also makes use of a conceptual model to address problems introduced when indicator selection is driven by practical issues of data availability. The Synoptic Approach is an example of geographic prioritization, producing maps that comparatively rank counties, hydrologic units, or other suitable land units. Many of the concepts presented here are equally appropriate for ranking individual wetland sites.