Description
Background: Wetland/riparian areas retain water long into the growing season, in contrast to adjacent drier uplands. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) oversees more than 17,600 square kilometers of wetlands/riparian areas and 11,500 square kilometers of lakes and reservoirs located primarily throughout 12 western states, including Alaska (Public Land Statistics, 2013). These wetland/riparian systems are among the most important, productive and diverse ecosystems in the Western U.S. Wetland/riparian systems support numerous aquatic, semi-aquatic and terrestrial species and provide ecosystem services such as habitat, flood attenuation, and nutrient cycling. The BLMâ¿¿s multiple-use mandate directs the management of watersheds for activities that potentially impact wetland/riparian resources, such as livestock grazing, timber harvest, mining, energy development, and recreation. Consequently, knowing the condition and trend of wetland/riparian systems is critical to achieving the BLM mission, which is to â¿¿sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.â¿ The BLMâ¿¿s fundamentals of rangeland health provide a common set of interdisciplinary questions that the BLM seeks to answer from the scale of individual grazing allotments to national-level reporting to ensure the sustainable management of functioning wetland/riparian ecosystems. The four fundamentals are: â¿¢ Watersheds are in, or are making significant progress toward, properly functioning physical condition, including their upland, riparian-wetland, and aquatic components; soil and plant conditions support infiltration, soil moisture storage, and the release of water that are in balance with climate and landform and maintain or improve water quality, water quantity, and timing and duration of flow â¿¢ Water quality complies with state water quality standards and achieves, or is making significant progress toward achieving, established BLM management objectives, such as meeting wildlife needs â¿¢ Habitats are, or are making significant progress toward being, restored or maintained for federal threatened and endangered species, federal proposed or candidate threatened and endangered species, and other special status species â¿¢ Ecological processes, including the hydrologic cycle, nutrient cycle, and energy flow, are maintained, or there is significant progress toward their attainment, in order to support healthy biotic populations and communities. BLM is interested in working with a partner to ascertain the achievement of land health in these areas. A consistent inventory of these areas will be the basis of these efforts. Additional work will focus on determining the condition and trend of these resources. Objectives: To facilitate new opportunities to understand the extent and status of wetland/riparian resources across western landscapes. Enable a partner to investigate wetland status, condition, and trend across much of the continental U.S. Public Benefit: As stated above, wetland/riparian areas are important, productive, diverse components of western ecosystems and are often a limiting factor for wildlife species in arid landscapes. There is currently no consistent, west-wide inventory of these resources. Such an inventory would be beneficial for any entitiy studying western landscapes and ecosystems. Wetland/riparian areas are also important for tracking climate change and are critical components of many speciesâ¿¿ life histories. Information from this effort may be utilized by other public agencies, universities, or other entities studying water resources in the West. It may form a baseline inventory for documenting changes due to climate change.