Abstract |
EPA's Wetland Research Program has supported a major effort to study wetlands mitigation projects in the field. The field studies were designed to: (1) evaluate the project plans; (2) compare the projects with natural wetlands in the same land use setting; and (3) describe the development of the projects over time. The information from the studies will be used as technical guidance for setting performance criteria and developing design guidelines for mitigation projects. Pilot studies have been conducted in Oregon, Washington, Florida, and Connecticut. The report presents the methods and associated quality assurance procedures used during the Connecticut study. A major objective of the pilot study was to evaluate the field procedures and the data quality assessment protocols used. The authors are in the process of performing that evaluation. They anticipate that in some cases they will adopt the procedure, while others will be refined or discarded. Therefore, the authors caution the user of the document that, at this point, the EPA makes no claims or endorsement of the use of the field, laboratory, or data quality assessment procedures associated with the study. |