Why Do a Wetland Threats Analysis?
Wisconsin’s wetlands are numerous and diverse, but so are threats to these valuable habitats. Wisconsin Wetlands Association’s wetland protection mission is a big one. As a small organization, we must take a strategic approach to wetlands conservation and make careful and thoughtful decisions about which threats we will tackle with our limited resources. What’s the most effective way for our organization to work to protect and restore the most and the best wetlands? In 2005, the organization launched a statewide analysis of threats to wetlands in Wisconsin to help us answer this question. The purpose of our Wetland Threats Analysis is to identify strategic approaches for working proactively to reverse wetland loss and improve wetland protections. The results of our analysis will provide a roadmap for Wisconsin Wetlands Association’s work, helping us develop effective programs to address the most important threats to wetlands in Wisconsin. We anticipate that the analysis will provide useful tools for others working on wetland protection around the state as well.
Several groups in and around Wisconsin have completed extensive planning and inventory projects to identify critical habitats, threats, and conservation actions for natural communities, species, and special places, including The Nature Conservancy (Ecoregional Plans) and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (Land Legacy Report , Wildlife Action Plan, State Natural Areas Program, Coastal Inventory, etc.). Our wetlands threats analysis seeks to build on this good work, pulling from these documents information about wetlands and threats to wetlands and consolidating this information into one statewide analysis for wetlands. We also want to prioritize threats to wetlands, by community type and region.
This analysis will not identify or address threats to each wetland in the state, nor will it focus on site-specific threats for the most part. Because Wisconsin Wetlands Association works statewide, and because our goal is to identify the top threats to wetlands in the state, by necessity the analysis must largely remain "broad brush" in its focus. Wisconsin Wetlands Association will also not be able to address all of the threats identified - in fact, one goal of this project is to identify threats that would best be addressed by organizations or agencies other than Wisconsin Wetlands Association.
