Wetlands protection

Georgia ranks second in the Southeast in estimated wetland acreage and has a rich diversity of wetland types. Currently in Georgia there is no coordinated statewide program to identify and prioritize landscape-level wetland areas used for wetland mitigation banks or other restoration activities. Developing a prioritization map of potential wetland restoration areas will help natural resource managers focus restoration efforts in areas that will provide the greatest cumulative effect on the health of a watershed and surrounding communities. Under the direction of Georgia Environmental Protection Division and a technical steering committee, UGA biological and agricultural engineers developed a GIS watershed-based planning tool to identify where wetland mitigation and restoration activities will have the greatest impact on aquatic resources as assessed by wetland functions and values, and identify a prioritization using a human impact assessment on aquatic resources. The product is a Geographic Information System, which identifies and prioritizes potential wetland restoration sites at multiple spatial scales, from statewide to local watersheds and also identifies cumulative human impacts based upon past, present and future threats to aquatic resources assessed at a watershed scale. These results are being used by the Natural Resources Conservation Service in assessing applications to the Wetland Reserve Program and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as part of the mitigation bank protocol and Georgia Environmental Protection Division in its water quality protection programs.