The 2018 Pacific Northwest Chapter meeting, Applied Wetland Science in a Changing Northwest World will be held September 26th and 27th, 2017 at the Red Lion Hotel in Kelso, WA. This year’s meeting will take a plenary format with day one comprised of a dozen plenary talks on emerging topics in wetland policy, mitigation planning, restoration, and carbon accounting for climate change. Day two (September 27th) will consist of workshops and field trips. The meeting is catered and includes an evening social on Tuesday, the 26th.
Tuesday, September 26th, 2017
8:00 am – Registration opens
8:55 am – Opening Remarks
Yvonne Vallette, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
9:00 am – 10:30 am
Wetland classification and mapping in Washington State
Moderated by Nate Hough-Snee, Meadow Run Environmental
9:00 am
Improving Wetland Identification for Conservation and Regulatory Priorities
Dr. Amy Yahnke – Senior Wetland Ecologist, Washington Department of Ecology
9:30 am
Classification of Washington's Wetlands for Inventory, Mapping, and Conservation Prioritization. An Approach Based on the U.S. National Vegetation Classification
Joe Rocchio – Senior Vegetation Ecologist, Washington Dept. of Natural Resources, Natural Heritage Program
10:00 am
A semi-automated, remote sensing based approach for updating the National Wetland Inventory in Washington State
Dr. Meghan Halabisky – Research Ecologist – University of Washington, School of Environmental and Forest Sciences
10:30 am Break and refreshments
11:00 am – 12:15pm
Frontiers session: Emerging ideas in wetland restoration and management
Session 1 – Beaver, watershed, wetland, and stream restoration
Moderated by Nate Hough-Snee, Meadow Run Environmental
11:00 am
Wetland restoration planning using the Beaver Restoration Assessment Tool
Dr. Nate Hough-Snee – Riparian and Wetland Ecologist, Meadow Run Environmental
11:15 am
Could beaver dams buffer a declining snowpack?
Konrad Hafen – Ph.D Candidate, University of Idaho, Water Resources
11:45 am
The Methow Beaver Project
Dr. Torre Stockard – Project Coordinator – Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife
12:15 pm Lunch and chapter business meeting
1:30 pm – 2:30 pm
Frontiers session: Emerging ideas in wetland restoration and management
Session 2 – Blue carbon science and applications
Moderated by Katrina Poppe, Northwest Ecological Services/Western Washington University
1:30 pm
Blue carbon science
Dr. Jude Apple – Research Coordinator Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve/Washington State Department of Ecology
2:00 pm
Blue carbon in practice
Stefanie Simpson – Blue Carbon Program Senior Manager, Restore America's Estuaries
2:30 pm Break and refreshments
3:00 pm – 5:00pm
Wetland policy and regulatory issues
Moderated by Yvonne Vallette, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
3:00 pm
Comparison of mitigation banking to other mitigation options – A consulting perspective
Fiona McNair, Senior Biologist, GeoEngineers
3:30 pm
Aquatic resource mitigation framework in Oregon
Dana Hicks – Mitigation Policy Specialist, Oregon Department of State Lands
4:30 pm
The next national wetland status and trend effort
Bill Kirchner – National Wetland Inventory Coordinator, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
5:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Social and ad hoc poster session.
*Contributed Poster Session
During the closing social on Tuesday, we invite attendees to present a wetland-related poster of their choosing. Students are encouraged to present preliminary results or projects in their early stages. This is the opportunity for anyone in attendance to repurpose her/his poster that presents recent applied wetland and floodplain research, policy briefs, mapping and condition assessment efforts, wetland mitigation, restoration, and conservation projects. All wetland-related topics are welcome. Please enter the anticipated poster title when registering. There is no additional cost to present a poster.
The conference will provide easels and pushpins for poster hanging. To ensure adequate space for all attendees, please keep posters to a reasonable size. Direct any poster-related questions to nate@natehough-snee.org.
Wednesday, September 27th, 2017
Field Trips and Workshop
Cowlitz Indian Tribe Restoration Projects Tour - 9:00am-2:00pm
Cowlitz Indian Tribe staff
Coweeman Mitigation Bank Site Tour - 9:00am-11:30am
Victor and Zachary Woodward, Habitat Bank
Wetland Restoration: What to plant and what NOT to plant - 8:30am-2:30pm
Dr. Sarah Cooke – Ecologist, Cooke Scientific
Field Trips and Workshops:
All field trips and workshops take place on September 27th and depart from the Red Lion Hotel and Conference Center, Kelso.
Cowlitz Indian Tribe Restoration Projects Tour - 9:00am-2:00pm
Registration - $35 (includes coffee service at Red Lion Hotel, and box lunch). Transportation to the restoration sites are on your own, but carpooling is encouraged. Sites are located near Kelso, WA.
Tour of the Abernathy Creek Restoration Projects- A series of restoration projects have been implemented by the Cowlitz Indian Tribe Natural Resources Department since 2014 in an effort to improve salmon habitat within Abernathy Creek in Cowlitz County, Washington. The Tribe first restored a 600-foot historical side channel of Abernathy Creek that had become filled with debris. The Tribe removed sand and rocks, restored access to the main channel of Abernathy Creek and strategically placed engineered log jams to create pools and resting areas. Other projects have included the installation of whole trees and wood accumulations in 1.3 miles of upper Abernathy Creek and Ordway Creek. These creeks are used by winter steelhead, coho and chinook.Abernathy Creek is part of the Intensively Monitored Watershed (IMW) project which is a joint effort of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Ecology, NOAA Fisheries, the Environmental Protection Agency, Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, Cowlitz Indian Tribe, and Weyerhaeuser Company. The Mill, Abernathy, Germany watershed is one of three IMWs in the state. The IMW cooperators collected water quantity, water quality, habitat, summer juvenile fish abundance, and smolt production data and are identifying specific restoration actions for each IMW treatment watershed. The Cowlitz Indian Tribe Biologist will lead the field trip up Abernathy Creek, explaining their restoration design considerations and monitoring effort.
Coweeman Mitigation Bank Site Tour - 9:00am-11:30am
Registration- $35 (includes morning coffee service at the Red Lion Hotel and box lunch). Transportation to the bank site is on your own, but carpooling is encouraged. Site is located less than 3 miles from the Red Lion Hotel in Kelso, WA.
This 312 acre site located along the Coweeman River was approved in 2016 as a joint wetland and habitat (endangered species) mitigation bank. The project includes approximately 100 acres within the tidally influenced portion of the Coweeman River floodplain and approximately 200 acres of old growth forest surrounding the river. A large palustrine forested/shrub/emergent/aquatic bed wetland complex locally known as “Hart’s Lake” and three smaller wetlands are located within the floodplain of the Bank site. The old growth forest includes wetlands and small tributaries that flow into the Coweeman River. The project restored wetlands and riparian areas within the floodplain and preserve critical wetland, upland and riparian habitat within the old growth forest areas. Historically these areas were grazed by cattle or hayed each summer which had significantly degraded and impaired their condition. The bank sponsor will lead the field trip explaining their restoration design and the process for getting approval for a joint wetland and habitat bank.
Restoration/Mitigation Planting Workshop - 8:30am-2:30pm
Registration- $125 (includes morning coffee service at the Red Lion Hotel and box lunch). Morning is in a class room setting at the Red Lion Hotel. Afternoon field session is at the Coweeman Mitigation Bank site. Transportation to the field site is on your own, but carpooling is encouraged. Field site is less than 3 miles from the Red Lion Hotel in Kelso, WA.
Sarah Cooke will provide a workshop on “what to plant and what not to plant” appropriate in many different types of aquatic environments including –stormwater ponds, small residential applications, wastewater treatment, bioswales, emergent meadows and forest wetlands. Learn from the master on what species work best in these different and often challenging locations and the importance of using native species in your plantings to avoid future problems.