Research

EPA Includes MNA Wetlands in National Survey

Field crew member Katie Quesnell collects vegetation to be analyzed in the research project. Photo courtesy U.S. EPA.

In September, MNA’s Rocky Point Wetlands Nature Sanctuary in Chippewa County was surveyed as one of many randomly selected wetland sites across the nation to take part in an annual vegetation and soil survey in 2021. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) National Wetland Condition Assessment (NWCA) is intended to increase our knowledge about the ecological health of wetlands in the U.S. The surveys, which have been conducted annually since 2011, “encompasses both tidal and nontidal wetlands ranging from the expansive marshes of our coasts to the forested swamps, meadows, and waterfowl-rich prairie potholes of the interior plains” according to the EPA NWCA website.

Rocky Point Wetlands Nature Sanctuary, as part of MNA’s more than 1,000-acre Munuscong Lake Conservation Area, protects an important stretch of relatively undisturbed and biologically diverse coastal wetland and minimally fragmented forests between Lake Munuscong and the Gogomain Swamp along the St. Mary’s River in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Rocky Point Wetlands was chosen to serve as one of several wetland reference sites, according to Mari Nord, Field Lead of the team that conducted the survey. “Reference sites are very important as they are considered the least disturbed condition and can serve to set the standard to which other wetland sites are compared.”

The data collected by the field team gets submitted electronically to the HQ/Lab and then goes through a level of quality assurance checks before being analyzed to determine the overall health of the wetland. The information gathered from field observations and soil and vegetation samples provide information that is essential to documenting the current status and, ultimately, trends in wetland quality.

MNA is proud to contribute to national science research through partnerships like those with the U.S. EPA – the lessons gleaned from these partnerships contribute both to conservation broadly as well as to our own sanctuary management practices. Learn more about the sites being surveyed in the NWCA at epa.gov/national-aquaticresource-surveys/what-national-wetland-condition-assessment.

Right: Topographic map showing wetland detail of Rocky Point Wetlands Nature Sanctuary. Map copyright 2013 National Geographic Society.

Below: Haircap mosses grow on a mound at Rocky Point Wetlands Nature Sanctuary. These mosses prefer bogs and other wetland habitats. Photo courtesy U.S. EPA.

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