What Are They ?
The profiles are distillations of the most recent studies documenting
physical and biological characteristics of each wetland area.
Presented in tabular form they highlight hydrology, vegetative
communities, animal use, species of concern, ownership, onsite
and surrounding land use, and the history of enhancement efforts.
Sources are referenced next to each entry and annotated citations
are provided at the end of each profile. The profiles are not
intended to be in-depth, detailed analyses, but rather overall
pictures of ecological conditions at each site. The Introduction
to the Inventory provides additional information on the project
background.
The Sources
The reservoir of information used to develop the wetland profiles
encompasses a good deal of variation. Studies were carried out
for different reasons at different scopes, at varying levels of
detail on various dates. Some provide data describing the hydrology,
water quality, and plant and animal species of the entire site
while others focus on a particular subhabitat or species; some
describe data collected over several years of consistent sampling,
others report on a single survey, the only data collected in the
last ten years. These differences were exhibited both within a
single site and among sites. The two main criteria used to determine
which sources to include were recency and comprehensiveness, the
relative weight afforded each depended on the nature of the available
data. An effort was made to maintain internal consistency within
a profile where a dataset existed that described several habitat
characteristics collected concurrently, with broad coverage of
the site and for the same project. If more recent data were available
for selected parameters these were included in addition to the
information from the broader dataset.
The Profile Categories
The heterogeneity of the source material also meant that the targeted
information was not always available for every site and so consistency
in the type of information provided for all the wetlands was not
possible. Profile Categories Explained identifies both
the type of information sought for the entry and the general objective
for the category.
Review of the Profiles
To comment on the accuracy of the information and to apprise us
of any important papers or research that may have been overlooked,
the draft profiles and bibliography were reviewed by resource
managers and selected wetland scientists. Landowners and/or groups
with management responsibility for each site were also given an
opportunity to review draft profiles.
This file last modified on: Tuesday, August 26, 1997.