Monitoring and Assessment Strategy

A key aspect of the Commonwealth of Virginia’s nontidal wetlands program is ensuring that there is no net loss of wetland acreage and function through permitted impacts. DEQ and Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) were awarded several grants by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to conduct a Wetland Monitoring and Assessment model to assess the current conditions of Virginia’s wetlands. Virginia is one of 3 states nationally to perform this work for EPA.

The overarching goal of the wetland monitoring and assessment strategy is to develop a long-term implementation plan for a wetland monitoring and assessment program that protects the physical, chemical, and biological integrity of the Commonwealth’s water resources, including wetlands. In order to accomplish this goal, it is critical to first know the status of wetland resources in Virginia, in terms of location and extent of wetlands in each watershed, and have a general knowledge of the quality of these wetland resources. Secondly, the functions of wetland resources impacted through our permitting program must be accurately evaluated to determine those functions to be replaced through compensatory mitigation. It is also important to assess the degree to which the required compensatory mitigation is performing in relation to those impacted functions.

The hierarchical nature of Virginia’s wetland monitoring and assessment strategy allows for both general reporting on status and trends, as well as providing for more intense analysis of select watersheds for assessment of cumulative impacts to wetland condition and water quality. This assessment approach will generate data that will be used to conduct biannual reporting on status and trends of wetlands as part of Virginia's Integrated 305(b)/303(d) report, and to evaluate the effectiveness of regulatory and voluntary programs in meeting Virginia's mandate of no net loss of wetland resources through regulatory programs, and a net resource gain through voluntary programs. Further, our interactive database and Wetland Quality Status and Trends Report will provide the general public, resource agencies, land use planning entities, and conservation groups with general information on the health and condition of the Commonwealth’s wetland resources.

The following questions will be used to guide the performance measures for the wetland monitoring program's objectives:

1.  What is the overall quality of wetlands in Virginia?
2.  To what extent is wetland quality changing over time?
3.  What are the wetland problem areas and areas needing protection?
4.  What level of wetland protection is needed?
5.  How effective are wetland programs in protecting the resource?

DEQ expects that this strategy can be accomplished within a ten-year time frame. The Wetland Strategy was updated in 2016.

Wetland Strategy (2016)

Appendix A

Appendix B

DEVELOPMENT OF A WETLAND PROGRAM PLAN

The Commonwealth of Virginia continues to make significant progress in the development of a comprehensive nontidal wetland regulatory program; refinement of our permitting/compliance database to track impacts, compliance, and compensation by watershed; and continued refinement of our wetland monitoring and assessment tools for use in management decision-making and integration within our water quality programs.

Virginia continues to develop the regulatory and non-regulatory components of its nontidal wetlands program. Strategies have already been developed for many of the action items in EPA’s Core Elements framework, and some of these strategies are being implemented. This grant work specifically addresses both wetlands within the Chesapeake Bay watershed and headwater aquatic resources.

Virginia's non-tidal wetland program addresses wetlands across all geomorphic provinces in the state, and specifically ensures regulatory coverage of headwater and isolated wetlands, which are a significant proportion of the state's inventory. In Virginia, there are approximately 1,605,921 acres of non-tidal wetlands, and 195,036 acres of tidal wetlands. This project was specifically intended to develop and strengthen the Commonwealths capacity to meet the no net loss/net resource gain goal.

DEQ's Office of Wetlands and Stream Protection, in partnership with the Center of Coastal Resources Management at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), developed a wetland comprehensive plan (Updated Wetland Monitoring and Assessment Strategy (2021-2025)) that documents the goals and activities of Virginia's tidal and nontidal wetland programs, and identifies opportunities for future program enhancements. A comprehensive plan to address the achievement of no-net-loss and net wetlands gain includes the following core elements, as defined by EPA:

  Monitoring and Assessment
  Regulation
  Voluntary Restoration, and
  Water Quality Standards for Wetlands