Highway construction that encroaches on natural wetlands and stream channels and other changes to land use that impact and result in accelerated channel migration and erosion are commonly the reason the work is needed. USGS personnel are providing GIS expertise in locating, compiling, and entering wetland monitoring data and supporting documentation from sites throughout Pennsylvania. The inventory is part of an organized effort to regulate wetlands as they pertain to highway-project development. These sites will be used to compensate for the authorized destruction of other wetlands throughout Pennsylvania. A compensation wetland is a new wetland created to offset the loss of a natural wetland.
Wetlands are complicated hydrologic systems.
Newly created wetlands need to be monitored to determine their characteristics and function. Monitoring is scheduled annually or biannually generally for a 5-year period. USGS scientists are monitoring representative parts of wetland systems to supplement the conventional delineation of wetland boundaries. The USGS is establishing monitoring plans to insure a standardized approach to monitoring wetland compensation projects throughout Pennsylvania. Biologic parameters such as the extent of aerial coverage of herbaceous and woody species, survivability of planted woody vegetation, and species richness and diversity will be documented.