LB 42-355 - Development of a rapid assessment method for Illinois wetlands.

Wetland assessment tools in the United States vary in spatial scale, intensity, cost, and precision. The US Environmental Protection Agency has developed a 3-level approach to wetland monitoring where Level 1 is a remote “landscape assessment,” Level 2 is a field-based “rapid assessment,” and Level 3 is a field-based “intensive assessment.” Although Level 3 assessments, including the vegetation-based Floristic Quality Assessment (FQA), produce the most reliable estimates of wetland condition, costs and expertise needed to complete these evaluations limit their execution. As an alternative, many states have developed Level 2 “rapid assessment methods,” or “RAMs,” which utilize a mix of both quantitative and qualitative observations to evaluate the relative condition of a wetland. In the state of Illinois, wetland assessment is currently based on the FQA since no Level 2 RAM has previously been developed. The goal of this project is to utilize existing RAMs, reviews, and understanding of the wetland communities found throughout Illinois to create a RAM for the state that may be used as a cheaper and faster alternative to the FQA, especially with limited plant identification skills.Development of a statewide RAM for Illinois (IL-RAM) was heavily influenced by existing RAMs from Ohio, California, and several other states. We chose metrics from four focus areas (landscape, hydrology, substrate, and biotic communities) and requested feedback on the inclusion of the selected metrics from wetland experts throughout Illinois. We then validated the tool by testing the IL-RAM tool at 50 wetlands throughout the state that previously had been assessed with the FQA for Illinois Department of Transportation projects. The IL-RAM scores were analyzed against the corresponding FQA scores to verify that the two scores correlate and that IL-RAM scores can successfully “predict” FQA scores. This analysis demonstrates that the IL-RAM may be used as an alternative to the FQA throughout Illinois in instances where costs, time, or botanical expertise may be limited.