Wetland creation and restoration: the status of the science

Abstract

In the last decade, interest has increased in coastal and freshwater wetland restoration and creation at all levels of government, in the scientific community, and in the private sector. US Environmental Protection Agency personnel agreed that there was a pressing need to determine how well created and restored wetlands compensate for losses permitted under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act. An effort was made to capture information not published elsewhere and incorporate it with published literature to produce a unique resource. The status report is the first major publication resulting from research initiated on wetland creation and restoration. Conceived as a mechanism for identifying the adequacy of the available information, this status report will help set priorities for the research program and provide Agency personnel with an analytical framework for making Section 404 permit decisions based on the status of the science of wetland creation and restoration. The report is composed of two volumes. The first volume is a series of regional reviews, summarizing wetland creation and restoration experiences in broadly-defined wetland regions, the second volume is a series of theme papers, covering a wide range of topics of general application to wetland creation and restoration. One report ismore » processed separately for inclusion in the appropriate data bases.« less