D. Woodward 1
The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), formerly the Soil Conservation Service, is using various techniques to determine wetlands on agricultural lands. The procedures used in 1991 assumed if the soil was hydric and hydrophytic vegetation was present, the wetland criteria were met. These procedures did not provide an estimate of the duration or frequency of inundation or saturation.
It was recognized at a 1991 meeting of NRCS Water Management and Hydraulic Engineers that a handbook was needed to help or refine the determination of the duration and extent of inundation or saturation in wetlands. It was agreed that the handbook should be developed from existing analytical procedures.
The handbook contains seven chapters or procedures that can be used to help determine the duration and frequency of inundation and saturation. Some of the procedures can be used to determine the scope and effect of drainage measures on a wetland. Other procedures can be used to determine the frequency of the wetland signatures on aerial photographs.
It was soon recognized that the handbook could be used by all federal agencies to help determine the characteristics of all wetlands. It was decided to establish an interagency work group to provide a peer review of the handbook. One of the recommendations of the work group was to conduct a field test of the tools.
A field test has been developed and is currently underway. This paper describes the handbook and the test.
