Dear Friends, The news this month has been full of stories about climate change, endangered species, invasive species, drought, floods and hurricanes. I have included many of them in the Editor’s Choice section but you will find many more throughout the newsletter. In many ways, it feels like we are in the middle of “the perfect storm” – the result of decades of misguided land use patterns, increasing development pressures, outdated policies and regulations, and the impacts of a rapidly changing climate. All of these issues are connected in some way, but to identify and address the multiple drivers involved can be daunting – kind of like untangling a fishing net that has started to unravel while being tossed around in the ocean and ensnared on rocky shores for many years. Where do you begin?

The good news is that there are many passionate, intelligent and motivated people who are spearheading partnerships and the requisite collaborative frameworks necessary to address these challenges. On the international level there have been recent efforts, most notably the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and the Paris Climate Agreement. In North America, the governments of Canada and the United States just finalized a Lake Superior Lakewide Action and Management Plan, one of several cross-boundary agreements that exist between Canada and the U.S. to coordinate management efforts of the Great Lakes ecosystems. On the national level, states are collaborating to address regional issues such as the six states in the Chesapeake Bay watershed who have joined forces to improve the health of Chesapeake Bay. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is leading efforts to improve water quality and aquatic resource health through grant programs aimed at increasing and improving watershed management practices such as the $4.6 Million in grants available for coastal watersheds in southeast New England. And there are many new efforts by organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund to integrate the environment into disaster recovery and humanitarian efforts. There are many other examples of federal, state and local collaborative, integrated efforts to address some of our nation’s most challenging natural resource emergencies. These efforts inspire me and give me hope – and I hope that they can do the same for you. Best regards, Marla J. Stelk Editor Wetland Breaking News

IN THIS ISSUE: EDITOR’S NOTE

EDITOR’S CHOICE

NATIONAL NEWS

STATE NEWS

WETLAND SCIENCE NEWS

RESOURCES & PUBLICATIONS

POTPOURRI

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

INDEX

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All photos by Jeanne Christie, ASWM

The world just agreed to the strongest protections ever for endangered animals By Darryl Fears – The Washington Post – October 5, 2016 With some scientists predicting a sixth mass extinction, the world’s protectors of wildlife acted with a greater sense of urgency at a marathon meeting to toughen regulations against killing such endangered animals as sharks, manta rays and anteaters and trading their remains. By the time the gathering in Johannesburg ended a day early Tuesday, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, had issued several trade bans, including one for the African grey parrot, favored by animal lovers for its ability to mimic human speech. CITES also moved to shut down the black-market trade of an exotic anteater called the pangolin, which is killed and sent mostly to China so its scaly skin can be roasted for traditional medicine. “With 183 parties bound by the convention, CITES is the largest conservation agreement in existence,” said Adam M. Roberts, chief executive of Born Free USA. “This meeting represents a clear win for conservation overall — but much work remains.” For full story, click here.

The Paris climate agreement is entering into force. Now comes the hard part. By Chris Mooney and Brady Dennis – The Washington Post – October 4, 2016 Video The European Parliament voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to ratify the Paris climate accord, a move that will make the sweeping international agreement a legal reality long before even those who negotiated it expected. “We made the deal in Europe, and we make it a reality in Europe,” Miguel Arias Cañete, the E.U.’s climate and energy commissioner, said on Twitter after the vote. The Paris agreement enters into force when at least 55 countries, representing 55 percent of global emissions, have joined it. Before Tuesday, those numbers stood at 62 nations and just shy of 52 percent of emissions, thanks to ratification by India over the weekend. For full story and to view video, click here. EPA Announces Over $4.6 Million in Grants for Coastal Watersheds in Southeast New England Contact: Emily Bender – U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – September 23, 2016 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced $4,637,000 for eight grants focused on coastal watershed efforts in southeast Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The projects selected for grant funding are intended to identify, test, and promote effective new regional approaches in critical areas such as water monitoring, watershed planning, nutrient and/or septic management, and resilience to climate change. For full news release, click here. RELEASE: New Public-Private Partnership Launched to Help Communities Bridge Gap Between Climate Data and Resiliency Planning World Resources Institute – September 22, 2016 Climate change is accelerating the intensity and frequency of extreme weather across the globe, with increasing risks to communities and businesses. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), World Resources Institute (WRI), U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) and a network of partners today launched the Partnership for Resilience and Preparedness (PREP) to help communities, companies and investors use data to improve climate resilience planning. Harnessing the data revolution to improve climate resilience efforts will require a diverse set of partners including government, civil society, the private sector, and international organizations. For full story, click here.

Climate change could cross key threshold in a decade: scientists By Laurie Goering – Reuters – September 22, 2016 The planet could pass a key target on world temperature rise in about a decade, prompting accelerating loss of glaciers, steep declines in water availability, worsening land conflicts and deepening poverty, scientists said this week. Last December, 195 nations agreed to try to hold world temperature rise to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius, with an aim of 1.5 degrees Celsius. But the planet is already two-thirds of the way to that lower and safer goal, and could begin to pass it in about a decade, according to Richard Betts, head of climate impacts research at the UK Met Office's Hadley Centre. For full story, click here. Governments of Canada and the United States have finalized a Lake Superior Lakewide Action and Management Plan Binational.net – September 19, 2016 Pursuant to the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, the governments of Canada and the United States have finalized a Lake Superior Lakewide Action and Management Plan (LAMP) which is an ecosystem-based strategy for restoring and protecting Lake Superior water quality. The LAMP documents ecosystem conditions and threats, and presents science and action priorities. The LAMP was developed with the help of over 30 science-based government agencies and involved over 50 other organizations representing thousands of people and many diverse interests. For more information and to download LAMP, click here. ASWM's Hot Topics Webinar: Wetlands & Climate Change: A Summary of Current Wetland Scientific Findings – November 15, 2016 The Association of State Wetland Managers Hot Topics Webinar: Wetlands & Climate Change: A Summary of Current Wetland Scientific Findings will be held on Tuesday, November 15, 2016 at 3:00 p.m. ET. Presented by Gillian Davies, Senior Ecological Scientist, BSC Group, Inc. and President, Society of Wetland Scientists. For more information and to register, click here. Wetland Mapping Consortium Webinar – Maps of Potential Wetland Extent for Selected Streams in Indiana – November 16, 2016 Wetland Mapping Consortium Webinar: Maps of Potential Wetland Extent for Selected Streams in Indiana will be held on Wednesday, November 16, 2016 at 3:00 p.m. ET. Presented by Kathleen Fowler, U.S. Geological Survey. For more information and to register, click here. ASWM’s Improving Wetland Restoration Success Project Webinar: Long-term Management & Legal Protections for Voluntary Restoration – November 17, 2016 The Association of State Wetland Managers Improving Wetland Restoration Success Project Webinar: Long-term Management & Legal Protections for Voluntary Restoration will be held on Thursday, November 17, 2016 at 3:00 p.m. ET. Presented by Ellen Fred, Esq., Conservation Partners; Ted LaGrange, Nebraska Game & Parks Commission; Jeff Williams, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service; and Andrew James, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. For more information and to register, click here. AWM’S Members’ Wetland Webinar: Developing Effective Buffer Protections: State Panelists and Presentation of Findings from a New England Study by the New England Interstate Pollution Control Commission – November 30, 2016 The Association of State Wetland Managers Members’ Wetland Webinar Developing Effective Buffer Protections: State Panelists and Presentation of Findings from a New England Study by the New England Interstate Pollution Control Commission will be held on Wednesday, November 30, 2016 at 3:00 p.m. ET. For more information, click here.

From left to right: Ellen Fred, Conservation Partners; Ted LaGrange, Nebraska Game and Parks Commission; Jeff Williams, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service; and Andrew James, USDA Natural Resources Conservation

Endangered Rivers of 2017: Nominations Open American Rivers – October 7, 2016 Every year, American Rivers, an environmental non-profit, generates a list of America’s Most Endangered Rivers®. They are now accepting nominations for their 2017 report from interested groups throughout the United States. They have been working hard this year to continue to spread the word about threats facing our nation’s rivers throughout the year, and the response has been great. For more information, click here. Deadline for nominating a river is October 31, 2016. To download the 2016 report, please click here. Contact Jessie Thomas-Blate for more information. Mississippi’s Claim That Tennessee Is Stealing Groundwater Is A Supreme Court First By Brett Walton – Circle of Blue – October 3, 2016 Sometime in the next few months, lawyers for the state of Mississippi will stand before a U.S. Supreme Court-appointed legal expert, clear their throats, and argue that Tennessee, a neighbor, is stealing water. However it is decided, the courtroom tussle breaks new legal ground and more. It is the first time the Supreme Court has considered a lawsuit that involves the use

and distribution of groundwater reserves that lie beneath multiple state boundaries. Dozens of major aquifers cross state borders. None, though, is subjected to the well-established legal instruments for allocating water that rivers are. For full story, click here. For the First Time, Bees Declared Endangered in the U.S. By Christine Dell'Amore – National Geographic – October 1, 2016 – Video As the legend goes, when star-crossed lovers Naupaka and Kaui knew they'd be forever separated, Naupaka took the flower from behind her ear and tore it in two pieces, keeping one and giving Kaui the other. As she went to the mountains, and he to the sea, the plants around them felt their sorrow, and from then on bloomed only in half-flowers. Such is the Hawaiian myth behind the naupaka, a beach shrub native to the islands whose flowers look like they're missing half of their petals. Now the plants are linked to another sad event: Their primary pollinators, a group of more than 60 yellow-faced bee species in the genus Hylaeus, are disappearing fast. So fast that on September 30, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service deemed seven Hylaeus species as endangered—the first bees ever on the list. For full story and to view video, click here. House passes waterways bill with Flint aid By Melanie Zanona – The Hill – September 28, 2016 The House easily passed a major waterways bill on Wednesday that included a bipartisan compromise to address the drinking-water crisis in Flint, Mich. A late-night deal on Flint aid helped resolve Democratic opposition to a stop-gap spending bill that lacked emergency funding for the city, paving the way for Senate passage of a continuing resolution earlier in the day and ending the threat of a government shutdown. For full story, click here. Will the Klamath River Be Renewed? Owner Applies to Remove 4 of 5 Dams By Molly Peterson – KQED News – September 27, 2016 The owner of four dams on the Klamath River and the nonprofit corporation created to take responsibility for their destruction recently filed long-awaited applications with federal regulators to remove the dams. For full story, click here.

Final Rule - Treatment of Indian Tribes in a Similar Manner as States for Purposes of Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – September 26, 2016 In section 518(e) of the Clean Water Act (CWA), Congress authorized EPA to treat eligible federally recognized Indian tribes in a similar manner as states for purposes of administering section 303 and certain other provisions of the CWA, and directed the agency to promulgate regulations effectuating this authorization. EPA has issued regulations establishing a process for federally recognized tribes to obtain treatment in a similar manner as states (TAS) for several provisions of the CWA; 53 tribes, for example, have obtained TAS authority to issue water quality standards under CWA section 303(c). EPA, however, has not yet promulgated regulations expressly establishing a process for such tribes to obtain TAS authority to administer the water quality restoration provisions of CWA section 303(d), including issuing lists of impaired waters and developing total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) under CWA section 303(d), as states routinely do. For more information, click here. Scenes from New England’s Drought: Dry Wells, Dead Fish and Ailing Farms By Jess Bidgood – The New York Times – September 26, 2016 – Video The Saco River flows lazily here, from New Hampshire into Maine, ridged with sandy banks and lush forests, luring eager families in canoes and rowdy flotillas of young adults. But after a hot, dry summer, a 10-mile canoe trip to Fryeburg, Me., from Center Conway, N.H., this month was interrupted, time and again, by the scrape of boat on sandy riverbed, and the grudging acceptance that the only way to get the canoe across certain stretches of shallow river would be to drag it. The low river is one of countless signs of dry weather that has settled over much of New England. Conditions are even worse south of the Saco, with the United States Drought Monitor observing “extreme drought” conditions in much of the eastern half of Massachusetts, southeastern New Hampshire and the southern part of Maine. For full story and to view video, click here. U.S., Canada aboriginal tribes form alliance to stop oil pipelines By Rod Nickel – PlanetArk – September 23, 2016 Aboriginal tribes from Canada and the northern United States signed a treaty on Thursday to jointly fight proposals to build more pipelines to carry crude from Alberta's oil sands, saying further development would damage the environment. The move came as Native American tribes on Thursday took their fight to Washington to stop development of the $3.7 billion Dakota Access oil pipeline, which would cross federally managed and private lands in North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois. For full story, click here. A Cruise Ship Just Sailed the Northwest Passage, Thanks to Climate Change Environmental News Network – September 23, 2016 The Northwest Passage originated as an unattainable and lethal legend when Europeans arrived in the Americas and longed for an easy sea route across North America. Now, a cruise ship has successfully traversed the route in only a month. It took the Crystal Serenity just a month to glide through the waters from Alaska to New York — Amundsen needed three years. What made this speedy voyage possible? For full story, click here. Toxic algal bloom explodes in Chesapeake Bay this summer By Tamara Dietrich – Daily Press – September 23, 2016 – Video Toxic algae that first turned up in the York River in 2007 hasn't merely taken hold — its bloom has exploded this summer in the Chesapeake Bay and beyond, expanding farther and lasting longer than scientists have ever seen before. Water samples taken this summer show the algae, called Alexandrium monilatum, has spread from Virginia Beach to the James, York and Rappahannock rivers to the Eastern Shore. One marine expert suspects it has even reached as far north as the Potomac River. Scientists say they don't know why a species common to the warmer waters of the Gulf of Mexico and Florida coast is suddenly thriving here. For full story and to view video, click here.

Soil will absorb less atmospheric carbon than expected this century, study finds ScienceDaily – September 22, 2016 By adding highly accurate radiocarbon dating of soil to standard Earth system models, environmental scientists from the University of California, Irvine and other institutions have learned a dirty little secret: The ground will absorb far less atmospheric carbon dioxide this century than previously thought. For full story, click here. Officials: Chesapeake Bay water quality is improving By Megan Brockett – Capital Gazette – September 21, 2016 – Video Water quality in the Chesapeake Bay is improving, but work remains to reduce pollution, according to the Chesapeake Bay Program. About 37.2 percent of the bay and its tidal tributaries met water quality standards between 2013 and 2015, program officials announced Wednesday. This is almost a 10-percent improvement over the previous period when about 33.9 percent of the tidal Chesapeake met the standards, program officials said. For full story and to view video, click here. VIMS collaborates with federal partners to study algal blooms By David Malmquist – VIMS – September 21, 2016 Work with NASA and NOAA provides space-eye view Algal blooms, which peak in lower Chesapeake Bay in mid- to late summer each year, are notoriously challenging to study. A partnership between William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science and both NASA and NOAA is now addressing that challenge, using the latest in satellite technology to better track where the rapidly shifting blooms might be on a given day. “Satellite images really help direct our sampling efforts,” says VIMS professor Kimberly Reece. “Otherwise, you can chase your tail around trying to figure out what’s going on where.” With reports of this year’s Bay blooms ranging from near the Maryland border to Cape Charles on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, any help in pinpointing their location can be of great benefit. For full story, click here. Rivers Flowing Into the Great Lakes Are Teeming with Microplastic Pollution By Emily J. Gertz – TakePart – September 17, 2016 Rivers that flow into the Great Lakes are awash with tiny plastic bits, some barely visible to the human eye but big enough to infiltrate the food chain, according to the largest study of microplastics in rivers to date. Scientists found the harmful pollutants in every one of the 107 samples taken from 29 rivers across six states, according to research published this week in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. For full story, click here. Obama designates the first-ever marine monument off the East Coast, in New England By Juliet Eilperin – The Washington Post – September 15, 2016 – Video President Obama declared the first fully protected area in the U.S. Atlantic Ocean on Thursday, designating 4,913 square miles off the New England coastline as a new marine national monument. Obama’s previous marine conservation declarations have focused on some of the most remote waters under U.S. jurisdiction, including last month’s expansion of a massive protected area in Hawaii. But the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument is more accessible, lying 130 miles off the southeast coast of Cape Cod. For full story and to view video, click here. These sage grouse hens hatched 862 chicks. Within two months, 700 were dead. By Darryl Fears – The Washington Post – September 14, 2016 – Video For nine years, a team of researchers studied greater sage grouse hens in Nevada and basically watched their chicks die. “They just disappear,” said Dan Gibson who led a study of sage grouse that was released Wednesday. The researchers caught females, put tracking collars on them, followed them to the areas where they built nests and checked on them nearly every week for observations that ended in 2012. “You see a female and her brood and she’ll have seven chicks with her. A week later, she’ll have five. Then three. Until slowly it goes to zero.” For full story and to view video, click here.

Wetland paradise could become first natural World Heritage site in EU to be classed as ‘in danger’ By Ian Johnston – Independent – September 14, 2016 The Doñana National Park in Spain is a natural paradise – home to the world’s rarest cat, the Iberian lynx, one of the world’s largest colonies of Spanish imperial eagles, flocks of flamingos and thousands of other different species. But the wetlands, on southern Spain’s Atlantic coast, could become the first natural World Heritage Site in the European Union to be formally classified as “in danger” unless the Spanish government takes action to stop a major dredging project, according to conservation group WWF. For full story, click here. Ag secretary: Bay states lead on conservation By Amanda Yeager – Capital Gazette – September 9, 2016 The six states in the Chesapeake Bay's watershed lead the United States in conservation practices, the nation's top agriculture official said Friday. Ninety-nine percent of the watershed's cultivated acres have at least one conservation measure in place, a figure U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack called "an extraordinary achievement unmatched anywhere in the United States." For full story, click here.

CA: SF Bay ecosystem collapsing as rivers diverted, scientists report By Carolyn Lochhead – SFGate – October 8, 2016 Evidence of what scientists are calling the planet’s Sixth Mass Extinction is appearing in San Francisco Bay and its estuary, the largest on the Pacific Coast of North and South America, according to a major new study. So little water is flowing from the rivers that feed the estuary, which includes the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, Suisun Marsh and the bay, that its ecosystem is collapsing, scientists who conducted the study say. For full story, click here. CA: California Law Recognizes Meadows and Forests as Water Infrastructure By Luke Hunt, Ph.D. – American Rivers – October 4, 2016 California’s vast water infrastructure is likely the most extensive in the world. It includes the tallest dam in the nation and enormous state and federal water projects that tap rivers flowing from as far away as Wyoming. On September 27th, Governor Brown signed legislation that recognizes the state’s watersheds as part of its infrastructure. Just as the state’s canals and levees

need maintenance and repair, so do our rivers and watersheds. This bill opens the door to using modern infrastructure financing approaches to protect and repair rivers and watersheds. Infrastructure bonds can now be used for restoration and protection. For full story, click here. CA Feds Support Salton Sea Action Pacific Institute The recently signed Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. Department of the Interior and California’s Natural Resources Agency, “Regarding the Coordination of Activities to Manage the Salton Sea,” offers $30 million in federal funding to support state activities and will provide closer coordination and federal expertise to meeting California’s commitment to achieving the critical goal of constructing and operating, according to the MOU, “25,000 acres of wildlife habitat, air and water quality projects, and other projects as necessary to minimize human health and ecosystem impacts at the Sea in the mid-term (through 2025).” For full story, click here. CO: Carpenter area receives more wetlands By Jim Mimiaga – The Journal – September 30, 2016 Wetlands are being expanded at the Carpenter Natural Area thanks to a partnership between the Colorado Department of Transportation and the city of Cortez. As part of CDOT’s wetlands mitigation requirements for road work on U.S. Highway 491, more wetland habitat will be installed on the west end of the Carpenter Natural Area. “As a result, we get wetland mitigation credit for future work planned in the Geer Natural Area,” said Cortez recreation director Dean Palmquist. For full story, click here. FL: Q&A: Polluted Water Pours into Sinkhole at Fertilizer Plant By Jason Dearen, Associated Press – ABC News – October 5, 2016 Hurricane Matthew's heavy rains are predicted to soak much of Florida, and that could complicate efforts to manage the pollution flowing into a sinkhole that opened up beneath a fertilizer plant's massive pile of toxic waste. The plant's owner, Mosaic Co., is pumping out water through a well while preparing to plug the huge hole under one of its gypsum stacks. But millions of gallons of contaminated water have already drained into Florida's main drinking-water aquifer. For full story, click here.

FL: Locals cheer as Corps rejects lagoon wetland bank proposal By Dinah Voyles Pulver – The Daytona Beach News-Journal – September 15, 2016 Local officials and residents concerned about a proposed wetland restoration and mitigation bank in Mosquito Lagoon were thrilled to learn this week that federal officials rejected the bank proposed by Davey Johnson, former Major League Baseball player and manager. The rejection angered Johnson. “I’m doing what’s best for the land over there,” he said Thursday. “I love New Smyrna Beach. I’m trying to do the best thing for this community.” But not everyone agreed the proposed wetland bank on 315 acres along the Intracoastal Waterway near Bethune Beach was the best thing, or the right thing. For full story, click here. HI: Scientists discover hidden world of Hawaii's coral 'twilight zone' By Jessica Aldred – The Guardian – October 4, 2016 The “twilight zone” of Hawaii’s deep coral reefs are home to vast algae meadows and support the highest rates of species found nowhere else in Earth’s seas, scientists have discovered. A 20-year study of the archipelago’s poorly-explored mesophotic – middle light – coral zone also found the deep-reef habitats are home to many unique and distinct species not found on shallow reefs with vast areas of 100% coral cover. While much is known about shallow, tropical coral habitats, the richness, diversity and ecological importance of these deep sea ecosystems, found at depths of 30-150 metres, has only recently been understood. For full story, click here. IA: Nitrates in the water may be more harmful than we thought By Donnelle Eller – The Des Moines Register – September 30, 2016 – Video Elevated nitrates in drinking water — a persistent problem in Iowa — have been linked to health concerns that include birth defects, cancers and thyroid problems, according to a state environmental group's review of dozens of health studies. The studies reinforce the need for Iowa to work harder to reduce nitrates and other pollution in the state's rivers and streams, the Iowa Environmental Council said. Iowans “are particularly vulnerable to the potential health impacts from nitrate pollution," according to the group's report, released Thursday. “Concentrations of nitrate in Iowa’s streams and groundwater have been found to rank among the highest in the U.S., even higher than elsewhere in the Corn Belt and Northern Great Plains,” said the group, which emphasized the need to learn more about nitrates' health impacts. For full story and to view video, click here. LA: Climate change increased chances of record rains in Louisiana by at least 40 percent NOAA – September 7, 2016 Human-caused climate warming increased the chances of the torrential rains that unleashed devastating floods in south Louisiana in mid-August by at least 40 percent, according to a team of NOAA and partner scientists with World Weather Attribution (WWA) who conducted a rapid assessment of the role of climate on the historic heavy rain event. “We found human-caused, heat-trapping greenhouse gases can play a measurable role in events such as the August rains that resulted in such devastating floods, affecting so many people,” said Karin van der Wiel, a research associate at NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory and the lead author. “While we concluded that 40 percent is the minimum increase in the chances of such rains, we found that the mostly likely impact of climate change is a near doubling of the odds of such a storm.” For full story, click here. ME: Corps, Maine DEP sign document for a special area management plan for vernal pools in Maine Contact: Tim Dugan – U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – September 20, 2016 The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New England District announces the signing on Sept. 6, 2016 by the Corps and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (MEDEP) of the documentation for a Special Area Management Plan for vernal pools (VP SAMP) in Maine. The document is titled, “A Special Area Management Plan (SAMP) for Vernal Pools in Maine” and dated August 2016. The Corps defines the SAMP process as a “comprehensive plan providing for natural resource protection and reasonable economic growth containing a detailed and comprehensive statement of policies, standards and criteria to guide public and private uses of lands and waters and mechanisms for timely implementation in specific geographic areas.” For full news release, click here.

MD: Restoring wetlands: Chestnut Creek Farm owners install environmental improvements By Michel Elben – Carroll County Times – October 5, 2016 – Video Walking along his farm's newly installed shallow water impoundment, Chestnut Creek Farm owner Jeff White explained why sustainability is important. "Nothing is permanently sustainable, but we want to minimize depletion and try to recycle the farm's nutrients," he said. "We're still exploring and adapting." White's pasture is wet for most of the winter, so he conferred with Natural Resource Conservation Service specialists. They suggested the area would make a good shallow water impoundment. The impoundment will function as a wetland that intercepts nutrients and soil before it gets to the waterways. For full story and to view video, click here. MA: Cape Cod Owner Agrees to Restore and Preserve Wetlands to Resolve Clean Water Act Violations Contact: David Deegan – U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – October 3, 2016 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Justice have reached an agreement with Idlewild Acres, LLC, and Peter M. Wild, its owner and manager, resolving violations of the federal Clean Water Act related to wetlands. The alleged violations occurred when Idlewild Acres and Mr. Wild dredged and filled about 14.7 acres of wetlands and other waterways on property they own in East Sandwich, Mass., without first obtaining a permit from the US Army Corps of Engineers. The property had historically been operated as a cranberry farm. The wetlands were filled in order to convert the cranberry bogs at the property to a tree and shrub nursery. For full news release, click here. MI: Detroit banks on green infrastructure to rescue city from heavy rains By Kurt Kuban, Bridge Magazine – mLive – September 2, 2016 Detroit has a water problem. Or, more correctly, it has a stormwater problem. Every time it rains, Detroit officials cross their fingers in hopes the city's antiquated sewer system can handle the volume of stormwater that gets flushed into thousands of drains in parking lots and along city streets. In many cases, those drains are connected to sewer pipes that also carry sewage to the city's wastewater treatment plant. When the system is overwhelmed with stormwater, which is happening with more frequency, the combined sewers end up discharging untreated sewage directly into local streams and rivers. For full story, click here. MI: Michigan's Boardman River Selected as Site for Major Fish Passage, Invasive Species Technology Project Port Stanley News A consortium of fishery management and research institutions has selected Michigan’s Boardman River as the site for a first-of-its-kind project to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of technologies to pass desirable fish around river barriers while simultaneously blocking harmful species, most notably the destructive sea lamprey. The ten-year project, led by the bi-national Great Lakes Fishery Commission, will take place at the Boardman River’s Union Street Dam, located in Traverse City, Michigan. The initiative has gained widespread attention, as lessons learned may be applied to other rivers and optimized to create selective bi-directional fish passage at new sites. The Traverse City Commission unanimously endorsed the technology demonstration and evaluation project during its meeting on September 6th, 2016. For full story, click here. MN: Once nearly wiped out by pollution, wild rice is coming back to northern MN By Dan Kraker – MPR News – September 21, 2016 For the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, the St. Louis River estuary has been described as being as close to heaven as they could get. It's where the river slows and widens before emptying into the Lake Superior in Duluth. "This was sort of a perfect place, a Mecca of sorts is what my uncle called it," said Thomas Howes, the band's natural resources director. "Everything that one needed for a good life was provided by the environment here." That included wild rice, or manoomin in Ojibwe, a food that still plays a critical role in the cultural life of the tribe's people. Decades of human activity almost eliminated wild rice from the region. But now, several agencies are partnering on a landmark effort to restore wild rice to about 250 acres of the St. Louis River estuary over the next five to 10 years. For full story, click here.

MO: Missouri Researchers Study New Ways Farmers Can Fight Water Pollution Kristopher Husted – KCUR – September 23, 2016 Farming in the fertile Midwest is tied to an environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. But scientists are studying new ways to lessen the Midwest’s environmental impact and improve water quality. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) forecasts the so-called “dead zone,” an area of sea without enough oxygen to support most marine life, to grow larger than the size of Connecticut, or roughly 6,000 square miles. For full story, click here. NV: Newmont Mining inks deal to help sage grouse habitat in Nevada By Scott Sonner, The Associated Press – The Denver Post – August 30, 2016 Newmont Mining Corp. officials signed an agreement Tuesday with the U.S. government and the state of Nevada to protect some of the most critical sage grouse habitat in the West in exchange for assurances it will be allowed to develop other public lands in the future in the largest gold mining state in the nation. The deal calls for Newmont, based in Greenwood Village, to seek approval from state and federal regulators for habitat conservation projects across 1.5 million acres under Nevada’s Conservation Credit System. For full story, click here. NJ: Occidental to pay $165M toward Passaic River cleanup but $1B more needed By Scott Fallon – NorthJersey.com – October 5, 2016 One of the nation’s largest chemical companies will pay $165 million to design the cleanup plan for the lower Passaic River under an agreement reached with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, officials announced Wednesday. The settlement with Occidental Chemical Corp. of Houston was hailed as a “milestone” by EPA officials. But the agency still has to come up with more than $1 billion to fund the massive dredge-and-cap project that is at least four years away from beginning and a decade away from completion. For full story, click here. NY: 'Never enough money' to monitor water quality, officials say By Jolene Cleaver – Times Telegram – September 18, 2016 Ammonia nitrate. Blue green algae. Lead. Arsenic. They're all on a near-hell's roll call of agricultural or industrial byproducts and other toxins environmental workers often find while testing water. These invaders and others create a workload for people such as Alexander Smith, a program manager for the water division of the state Department of Environmental Conservation, who in recent weeks has been among a team of DEC and U.S. Geologic Survey staffers testing tributaries in the Mohawk River Watershed. The dual partnership formed due to the difficulty of obtaining funds for water sampling and remediation. For full story, click here. OH: State asks judge to halt transfer of wetland deeds By Kimball Perry – The Columbus Dispatch – September 22, 2016 The Ohio Department of Natural Resources wants a judge to stop proceedings that would give the Sawmill Wetlands to a developer. The department filed the court paperwork Wednesday appealing Franklin County Common Pleas Court the Judge Chris Brown's ruling requiring the deed to the 18-acre wetlands in Dublin be transferred to James Schrim III of JDS So Cal Ltd. In making that Sept. 2 ruling, Brown gave the department 30 days to turn over the deed. For full story, click here. PA’s lagging Bay cleanup gets fiscal transfusion By Timothy B. Wheeler – Bay Journal – October 4, 2016 Pennsylvania’s lagging Chesapeake Bay cleanup efforts got a fiscal transfusion Tuesday, as federal officials and the commonwealth’s governor pledged to spend a total of $28 million more in the coming year on measures aimed at reducing Bay-fouling pollution from Keystone State farms. For full article, click here.

UT: Utah DEQ releases PSA videos to promote approachable image The Environmental Council of the States – October 7, 2016 The Utah Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has released a series of humorous PSA videos entitled “Ask DEQ, not Phil” to encourage residents to protect the state’s environment. The videos, issued during the agency’s 25th anniversary celebration, focus on the state’s three top environmental issues: air inversions, radon home testing, and clean water. To read more and view videos, click here. VA: Bay Foundation program lets participants help restore grass beds with home kits By Rob Hedelt – Fredericksburg.com – October 10, 2016 – Video As a great blue heron soared gracefully above the surface of Aquia Creek, some altogether different visitors were on a mission. Moving about just off a marshy shore in waders up to their waists, two members of a team from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation pulled through masses of floating grasses torn loose from the bottom by wind and wave action. For full story and to view video, click here. WI: Contract awarded to restore Underwood Creek aquatic habitat Contact: Jacqueline Tate – U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – September 20, 2016 The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Detroit District has awarded a $10.95 million contract to Michels Corporation of Montgomery, Ill. to restore aquatic habitat in the downstream portion of Underwood Creek in Wauwatosa, Wis. The project will restore natural habitat along approximately 4,400 linear feet of Underwood Creek starting at the confluence with the Menomonee River. This restoration work meets the goals of a wide array of project partners including Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR). For full news release, click here. WI: Mining leaves a Wisconsin tribe's hallowed sites at risk By Brian Bienkowski – Environmental Health News – September 19, 2016 Guy Reiter was an archaeologist before he was an activist. But the two merged after a dream six years ago. “I was in a van and when we drove by the White Rapids I looked over and saw an elder sitting on a dam, in full Indian regalia,” Reiter says. “He flagged me down, I climbed the dam, and he started talking to me in Menominee.” Menominee is the language of Reiter’s tribe, the Menominee Indians of Wisconsin. The dam is on the Menominee River, where the history of the tribe begins. For full story, click here. WY: Exxon agrees to pay millions for Yellowstone River spill By Matthew Brown – Associated Press – September 21, 2016 Exxon Mobil Corp. has agreed to pay $12 million for environmental damages caused by a pipeline break that spilled 63,000 gallons (238,474 liters) of oil into Montana's Yellowstone River and prompted a national debate over lax pipeline safety rules, officials said Wednesday. The payment is meant to settle claims from the U.S. and state governments that the crude oil killed fish and wildlife and damaged thousands of acres along an 85-mile (137-kilometer) stretch of the famous river that flows through southern Montana. For full story, click here.

Call for action to protect 'the lungs of the sea'’ By Helen Briggs – BBC News – October 10, 2016 Seagrasses are flowering plants that form dense underwater beds in shallow water. Distinct from seaweed, the plants provide shelter and food for a large range of animals, including fish, marine mammals and birds. Many seagrass meadows have been lost because of human activities, say researchers. For full story, click here. Invasive insects cause tens of billions in damage: study Bangkok Post – October 5, 2016 Invasive insects cause at least $77 billion (69 billion euros) in damage every year, according to a study released Tuesday that says this figure is "grossly underestimated" because it covers only a fraction of the globe. Climate change is on track to boost the damages by nearly 20 percent before mid-century, the authors reported in the journal Nature Communications. For full story, click here.

Global warming could kill off ‘good bacteria’, exposing an ‘Achilles’ heel’ in the ecosystem By Ian Johnston – Independent – October 4, 2016 Global warming could wreak havoc on the food chain by killing off ‘good bacteria’ in the stomachs of insects and other animals, a new study suggests. The researchers raised one type of insect – the southern green stinkbug – in an incubator kept 2.5 degrees Celsius warmer than the temperature outside. That is the average scientists expect the world to warm by 2100. They found this produced a significant reduction in the “good bacteria” in their guts, with which they have a beneficial symbiotic relationship. For full story, click here. Yosemite's endangered frogs show signs of rebound By Eva Botkin-Kowacki – The Christian Science Monitor – October 3, 2016 The Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frog was once one of the most abundant amphibians in that western mountain range. But the animal has disappeared from 93 percent of its historical range, leading it to be added to the endangered species list in 2014 by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. But there might be hope for the hoppers yet. For full story, click here. No big shift in U.S. flood patterns despite climate change: study By Ian Simpson – PlanetArk – September 30, 2016 U.S. flooding patterns have shown some regional changes but no countrywide shift despite heavier rains spawned by global warming, a study by U.S. and Austrian researchers said on Wednesday. Findings that the biggest changes were in the Upper Mississippi Valley, northern Great Plains and New England could help focus resources in dealing with a changing climate, said Stacey Archfield, a U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist and one of the study's authors. "It's a much more nuanced approach than saying, 'We know change is happening everywhere and this is a particular solution for it,'" she said. For full story, click here. Service Acts to Prevent Harm to Native Wildlife from 11 Nonnative Species Contact: Christina Meister – U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service – September 29, 2016 The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today took action to help ensure 10 nonnative freshwater fish species and one nonnative freshwater crayfish species do not become established in the United States and damage native wildlife and habitats. In a final rule that will take effect 30 days after the date of publication in the Federal Register, the Service listed the crucian carp, Prussian carp, Eurasian minnow, roach, stone moroko, Nile perch, Amur sleeper, European perch, zander, wels catfish and the common yabby as “injurious wildlife” under the Lacey Act. For full news release, click here.

The Deepwater Horizon spill may have caused ‘irreversible’ damage to Gulf Coast marshes By Chelsea Harvey – The Washington Post – September 27, 2016 The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill has been called one of the worst environmental disasters in American history — and more than six years later, scientists are still investigating how much damage it actually caused. Now, a new study suggests the spill may have permanently marred one of the Gulf shore’s most important ecosystems. For full story, click here. Fate of turtles and tortoises affected more by habitat than temperature Environmental News Network – September 27, 2016 Habitat degradation poses a greater risk to the survival of turtles and tortoises than rising global temperatures, according to new research. More than 60 percent of the group are listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered, because they are being traded, collected for food and medicine and their habitats are being degraded. Understanding the additional impact of global warming and changes in rainfall patterns on their diversity and distributions is therefore paramount to their conservation. For full story, click here. Partnering with States to Cut Nutrient Pollution By Joel Beauvais – EPA Connect – September 22, 2016 Nutrient pollution remains one of America’s most widespread and costly environmental and public health challenges, threatening the prosperity and quality of life of communities across the nation. Over the last 50 years, the amount of excess nitrogen and phosphorus in our waterways has steadily increased, impacting water quality, feeding harmful algal blooms, and affecting drinking water sources. From the Lake Erie algae blooms to the Gulf of Mexico dead zone, nutrient pollution is impacting every corner of our country and economy. For full blog post, click here. Rusty patched bumble bee proposed for U.S. endangered species status By Laura Zuckerman – PlanetArk – September 22, 2016 The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Wednesday proposed listing the rusty patched bumble bee, a prized but vanishing pollinator once widely found in the upper Midwest and Northeastern United States, for federal protection as an endangered species. One of several wild bee species seen declining over the past two decades, the rusty patched bumble bee is the first in the continental United States formally proposed for listing under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. For full story, click here. The Secret World of Bog By Shanna Baker – Hakai Magazine – September 19, 2016 British Columbia’s wild west coast is generally represented as a place of luxurious forests starring gargantuan Sitka spruce, western hemlock, and western red cedar looming over dense, leafy green understory. Yet there is another, drastically different, side to the coastal temperate rainforest that few people know—a landscape where the trees are gnarled and stunted like bonsai, the ground is carpeted in hillocks of multicolored mosses, the stagnant pools are as red as bourbon, and plants slurp bugs for breakfast. This is the secret world of The Bog. For full article, click here. Outdated FEMA Flood Maps Don't Account For Climate Change By Christopher Joyce – npr – September 15, 2016 The floods that hit Louisiana last month were caused by rainfall that was unlike anything seen there in centuries. Most of the southern part of the state was drenched with up to 2 or 3 inches in an hour. A total of 31 inches fell just northeast of Baton Rouge in about three days; 20 parishes were declared federal disaster areas. Climate scientists and flood managers suspect there could more like that to come — in Louisiana and in other parts of the country. For full story, click here.

1.5 billion birds missing from North American skies, ‘alarming’ report finds By Bob Weber – thestar.com – September 14, 2016 North American skies have grown quieter over the last decades by the absent songs of 1.5 billion birds, says the latest summary of bird populations. The survey by dozens of government, university and environmental agencies across North America has also listed 86 species of birds — including once-common and much-loved songbirds such as the evening grosbeak and Canada warbler — that are threatened by plummeting populations, habitat destruction and climate change. For full story, click here. What the Ancient Oyster Knows By Geoffrey Giller – Hakai Magazine – September 13, 2016 Stephen Durham ignores the cold water seeping into his hiking boots as he wades into a shallow, brackish creek wending through a salt marsh in Madison, Connecticut. With each step, shells crunch under his feet and he sentences a few more oysters to an early death. Below these casualties, the remains of their ancestors lie entombed in the muck. Less than a meter down, they could be hundreds of years old—artifacts of a time before modern record-keeping. Like thousands of soap-dish-sized Rosetta stones, the shells can reveal clues about the past—if you know what you’re looking for. Durham, sporting a trimmed grad-student beard and a hat from a seafood restaurant, is a new kind of sleuth. He’s one of the world’s first students trained in conservation paleobiology, a young field that applies a paleontologist’s skill set to modern-day conservation challenges by decoding animal and plant remains. For full article, click here. Why the EPA Doesn't Regulate Ocean Acidification By Robinson Meyer – The Atlantic – September 13, 2016 Imagine that a recently discovered pollutant prevented trees from forming leaves. Every April, buds would spring from the branches, and kids on their way to school would point to the tiny shoots of green and pink. But as the leaves fleshed out further and began to photosynthesize, an invisible vapor would choke and corrode them. The tree would eventually just wear away, its bark falling off in chunks. It is not an exaggeration to say that something similar is happening right now—yet in Earth’s oceans, and so outside of most Americans’ daily view. A fundamental chemical change in the oceans has made marine waters less hospitable to any animal that builds a hard shell or a skeleton. In some places, hatcheries report that oyster larvae are dying by the billions, corroded away before they can grow. The chemistry is already affecting corals, clams, and the zooplankton that form the basis of the marine food chain. For full story, click here. Secrets of life in the soil By Rachel Cernansky – Nature.com – September 13, 2016 Early on a cold spring morning, Diana Wall is trying out a tool normally used to make holes on golf courses — and she can't contain her excitement. Her team has always used more laborious methods to take samples of soil and its resident organisms. “Oh, that's a beautiful core,” she says as one student bags a sample filled with tiny roundworms. “Hello, nematodes!” For full story, click here. Disasters and Biodiversity: Integrating The Environment Into Recovery and Reconstruction for a Resilient Tomorrow By Anita Van Breda – The Huffington Post – September 6, 2016 The devastating floods in Louisiana and the wildfires in California are a sober reminder of climate change’s destructive path. We’re facing a harsh reality: frequent and extreme weather events are now the norm for more and more people here at home and abroad. As the number and scale of natural disasters around the globe increase, the connection between World Wildlife Fund’s environmental work, disasters and humanitarian action has never been more urgent. For full story, click here.

Researchers Develop Mathematical Model for Managing Wetlands By Elizabeth Fox – Natural Science News – September 3, 2016 Researchers from Utah State University have developed a mathematical model for the management of wetlands. The computer model can recommend actions, such as when to begin invasive plant control, to help maintain wetland habitats. The details are in a paper just published in the journal Water Resources Research. Managing wetlands is a difficult job, especially as many states’ water supplies drop. The Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge is a 74,000-acre wildlife refuge in Utah. The refuge is home to many migratory bird species and other animals. Proper management is necessary to protect all of the unique birds that pass through but funding is limited. A team of researchers developed a mathematical model to help wetland managers better prioritize actions that will have the greatest impact. The computer model calculates the weighted usable area, or WU, of Utah’s wetlands. WU is a measure of the amount of space suitable for migratory birds based on factors such as water level and type of vegetation. The model can then recommend actions that will best increase the WU of the area. For full story, click here.

EPA Tool Helps Communities Across the Country Prepare for Climate Change Contact: Tricia Lynn – U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – September 29, 2016 As part of the Obama Administration’s commitment to strengthen America’s climate resilience, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released an updated online climate change risk assessment tool that assists users in designing adaptation plans based on the types of threats confronting their communities. EPA’s Climate Resilience Evaluation and Awareness Tool (CREAT), is designed for water utilities. For full news release, click here. Climate Change Indicators in the United States, 2016 (Fourth Edition)

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – 2016 The Earth's climate is changing. Temperatures are rising, snow and rainfall patterns are shifting, and more extreme climate events – like heavy rainstorms and record high

temperatures – are already happening. Many of these observed changes are linked to the rising levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, caused by human activities. EPA partners with more than 40 data contributors from various government agencies, academic institutions, and other organizations to compile a key set of indicators related to the causes and effects of climate change. The indicators are published in EPA's report, Climate Change Indicators in the United States, available here.

Protecting and Restoring Flows in Our Southeastern Rivers River Network – 2016 River Network is excited to announce the release of their new report: Protecting and Restoring Flows in Our Southeastern Rivers: A Synthesis of State Policies for Water Security and Sustainability. To address the range of threats to river flows in the southeast, this report covers a comprehensive set of policies starting with the scientific foundations of water budgets and moves to supply management and flow protection and then demand management and finally the management of the built environment. For more information and to download the report, click here.

SECURE Water Act Report to Congress Bureau of Reclamation – 2016 The SECURE Water Act Section 9503(c) — Reclamation Climate Change and Water 2016 report identifies climate change as a growing risk to Western water management and cites warmer temperatures, changes to precipitation, snowpack and the timing and quality of streamflow runoff across major river basins as threats to water sustainability. Water supply, quality and operations; hydropower; groundwater resources; flood control; recreation; and fish, wildlife and other ecological resources in the Western states remain at risk. The report, which responds to requirements under the SECURE Water Act of 2009, shows several increased risks to western United States water resources during the 21st century. This is the second report produced for Congress. The first report was produced in 2011. For more information and to download this report, click here.

Canada’s Fishing Industry at Risk of Major Stock Collapse By Kelsey Johnson, iPolotics – The Tyee – October 5, 2016 Canada’s $6-billion fishing industry is at risk of suffering another major stock collapse, the country’s Environment and Sustainable Development commissioner warned Tuesday. “We’re at potential risk for another stock to potentially collapse. It’s disconcerting that the department wasn’t aware of this, couldn’t wrap it up,” Julie Gelfand told reporters in Ottawa. For full story, click here. Does Big Ag Really Feed the World? New Data Says Not So Much By Krista Holobar – Civil Eats – October 5, 2016 Ever since the U.N. announced that the world population is projected to exceed 9 billion by 2050 and global food production will have to more than double by that time, U.S. agricultural and agribusiness interests have been making the case that America’s farmers will have to double their production of grain and meat to “feed the world.” Those who make this argument maintain that industrial farming—which relies heavily on biotechnology and pesticides—is the only way U.S. farmers can double production, while organic and other agroecological methods will only put

countless people at risk of hunger and malnutrition. For full story, click here. The greatest river in North America begins in Minnesota. But our pristine stretch of the Mississippi faces mounting environmental threats. By Josephine Marcotty – Star Tribune – October 2, 2016 – Video The mating dance of the hex mayflies drew John Sorenson to the Straight River at sunset. As the bugs floated like snowflakes in the fading summer light, he pulled on his waders and waited patiently for the distinct sound of trout breaking the dark water to feed. “It’s a treasure,” he said, stepping to the edge of the grassy bank and casting his line, as he has for years. But the Straight River is becoming warmer and more polluted as farm irrigation rigs multiply along its banks. Now Sorenson fears that the fish huddling in the cooler deep spots are a stark sign that northern Minnesota’s only naturally producing trout stream is in trouble. For full story and to view video, click here. Chromium-6: 'Erin Brockovich' chemical threatens two-thirds of Americans By Tafline Laylin – The Guardian – September 20, 2016 In the 2000 biographical film about a legal clerk who brings a major utility company to its knees for poisoning residents of Hinkley, California, Erin Brockovich ended on a Hollywood high note with a $333m settlement from PG&E. But chromium-6 contamination of America’s drinking water is an ongoing battle the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is losing. Nearly 200 million Americans across all 50 states are exposed to unsafe levels of chromium-6 or hexavalent chromium, a heavy metal known to cause cancer in animals and humans, according to a new report released Tuesday by the nonprofit research and advocacy organization Environmental Working Group (EWG). Today, Brockovich says Hinkley wasn’t an isolated event. For full story, click here. Irrigation Nation By Ted Genoways – Pacific Standard Magazine – September 19, 2016 Rick Hammond turned a yellow dial until it locked into place with a hollow clank, and a high-pressure hum filled the air. Across the windswept field, a light started blinking atop a metal contraption that stretched a quarter mile from end to end, adorned with an array of dangling hoses and sprinkler heads. With a humped metal spine and rib-like trusses, it looked like the skeleton of some sort of robotic brontosaurus. Hammond tipped his cowboy hat back with his thumb to get a closer look at the display on the sky-blue control panel emblazoned with the logo for Valley Irrigation. He checked the readouts for speed and pump pressure and then pointed to the flashing light. “That means everything is on. Then you start it walking,” he said. And with the push of a button, the enormous center-pivot irrigation system lumbered to life, the twinned drive wheels under each triangular tower creeping slowly clockwise. For full story, click here.

Be Prepared By Patti Kay Wisniewski – EPA Blog: Healthy Waters in the Mid-Atlantic – September 8, 2016 September is National Preparedness Month – a time to take basic steps to improve our resilience and readiness for natural disasters and other emergencies. With the Atlantic hurricane season in full swing, we should all remember to plan with our families to be able to quickly and safely leave our homes when severe weather threatens. We also take this time in September as a way to pay tribute to those who rush to the scenes of disasters like police and firefighters for their dedication to our safety and security. For full blog post, click here. Dammed if you do: Scientists recommend strategies to lessen dams' environmental impacts By Mary-Ann Muffoletto – PHYS.org – September 8, 2016 Dams around the world provide critical water supplies and hydropower to growing communities and hundreds of new dams are proposed for developing economies. Though viewed as sources of potential green energy, their construction also poses a significant environmental cost. "Managing rivers to better meet both human and ecosystem needs is a complex societal challenge," says Jack Schmidt, professor in the Department of Watershed Sciences at Utah State University. "People need water and power, but damming rivers causes substantial damage to ecosystem functions and services." For full story, click here.

WEBINARS, MEETINGS, TRAINING, SPECIAL EVENTS

WEBINARS

OCTOBER 2016 October 21, 2016 2:00 p.m. EDT

Hudson River Sustainable Shorelines webinar: Sustainable Shorelines Designs: from Long Island to Lake Erie

October 24, 2016 1:30 p.m. EDT

Security and Sustainability Forum Webinar: Water is for Fighting Over and other myths about water in the west

October 25, 2016 2:00 p.m. EDT

River Network Webinar: Water Scarcity as a Catalyst for Integrated Water Management – Creating Multiple Benefits for Your Community and River

October 26, 2016 1:00 p.m. EDT

American Water Resources Association (AWRA) webinar: Oregon's First Integrated Water Resources Strategy: Lessons Learned Since Implementation

October 26, 2016 1:00 p.m. EDT

Carpe Diem West Webinar: Navigating the Intersection: Western Water, Climate Change & Public Health

October 26, 2016 1:00 p.m. EDT

The Swamp School Webinar: 2017 Nationwide Permit Update

October 26, 2016 2:00 p.m. EDT

Forester University Webinar: Specifying Engineered Soils for Sustainable Vegetation

October 26, 2016 2:00 p.m. EDT

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Webinar - Toolkit of Available EPA Green Infrastructure Modeling Software. To register, click here.

October 27, 2016 1:30 p.m. EDT

Northern Michigan’s Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council webinar: Climate Change Adaptation: Best Management Practices for Coastal Wetlands in Michigan

NOVEMBER 2016 November 15, 2016 3:00 p.m. EST

Association of State Wetland Managers Hot Topics Webinar: Wetlands & Climate Change: A Summary of Current Wetland Scientific Findings

November 16, 2016 1:00 p.m. EST

Center for Watershed Protection Webcast 6: Non-Traditional MS4s

November 16, 2016 3:00 p.m. EST

Wetland Mapping Consortium Webinar: Maps of Potential Wetland Extent for Selected Streams in Indiana

November 17, 2016 3:00 p.m. EST

Association of State Wetland Managers Improving Wetland Restoration Success Project Webinar: Long-term Management & Legal Protections for Voluntary Restoration

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

November 30, 2016 3:00 p.m. EST

Association of State Wetland Managers Members' Wetland Webinar: Developing Effective Buffer Protections: State Panelists and Presentation of Findings from a New England Study by the New England Interstate Pollution Control Commission

MEETINGS

OCTOBER 2016 October 25, 2016 Washington, DC

Environmental Law Institute: The Paris Agreement & Private Actors: Extra-jurisdictional Considerations of the Climate Agreement (2016 ELI-Miriam Hamilton Keare Policy Forum)

October 25, 2016 Washington, DC

Environmental Law Institute: The Business of Water (2016 Corporate Forum)

October 26-27, 2016 Washington, DC

U.S. EPA Office of Research and Development, National Center for Environmental Research: Water Reuse Grant Kick-off Meeting & Webinar

October 28-30, 2016 Fairhope, AL

Diamondback Terrapin Working Group: 7th Symposium on the Ecology, Status and Conservation of the Diamondback Terrapin

October 28-30, 2016 Kansas City, MO

14th Annual Ecological Genomics Symposium

October 28-30, 2016 Minneapolis, MN

Land Trust Alliance Rally 2016 National Land Conservation Conference

October 30-November 2, 2016 Phoenix, AZ

American Water Works Association: Water Infrastructure Conference & Exposition

October 31-November 4, 2016 Santa Fe, NM

National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP): 39th Annual Scientific Symposium and Committee Meetings

NOVEMBER 2016 November 1-4, 2016 Washington, DC

CitiesAlive Conference: Rising to the Stormwater Challenge

November 1-4, 2016 Banff, Alberta, Canada

North American Lake Management Society (NALMS) Symposium: Science to Stewardship: Balancing Economic Growth and Lake Sustainability

November 2, 2016 University of Illinois

Chicago Wilderness Congress: Celebrating 20 Years: One Home. One Future

November 3, 2016 Gulfport, FL

The Environmental Law Institute and Stetson's Institute for Biodiversity Law and Policy: Fourth Annual ELI-Stetson Wetlands Workshop

November 3, 2016 Oneonta, NY

Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay: Upper Susquehanna Watershed Forum

November 3-5, 2016 Pensacola Beach, FL

Gulf Estuarine Research Society (GERS) / Society of Wetland Scientist South Central Chapter Joint Meeting

November 9-11, 2016 Las Vegas, NV

Society for Ecological Restoration-Southwest Chapter Annual Conference

November 9-11, 2016 Albuquerque, NM

Quivira Coalition Conference: Lights, Soil, Action!

November 12, 2016 Rocky Hill, CT

Connecticut Association of Conservation & Inland Wetland Commissions (CACIWC): 2016 Annual Meeting & Environmental Conference

November 13-17, 2016 Orlando, FL

2016 AWRA Annual Water Resources Conference

November 13-17, 2016 Indianapolis, IN

American Water Works Association: Water Quality Technology Conference® & Exposition

November 14–15, 2016 Manhattan, KS

Kansas Water Office: Governor’s Conference: The Future of Water in Kansas

November 14-16, 2016 Stevenson, WA

7th Annual Northwest Climate Conference

November 15, 2016 UC Davis Conference Center Davis, CA

Hosted by University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, UC Davis, and UC Riverside the 2nd Annual Do No Harm Workshop: Considerations for the Use of Non-local Species in Ecological Restoration

November 15-16, 2016 Norfolk, VA

Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway Association: 2016 Annual Meeting

November 15-17, 2016 Sacramento, CA

2016 Bay-Delta Science Conference

November 15-17, 2016 Front Royal, VA

EcoAgriculture Partners Landscape Leadership 3-Day Intensive Workshop

November 18, 2016 Gardner, MA

Massachusetts Watershed Coalition Conference: Stormwater for Towns: Save Money! Save Streams and Lakes!

November 28-30, 2016 Sanya, China

International Forum on Water (2016IFW)

DECEMBER 2016 December 2, 2016 North Linthicum, MD

Maryland Water Monitoring Council’s 22nd Annual Conference: A River Runs Through It – Strengthening Networks and Connections

December 5-9, 2016 Jacksonville, FL

ACES: A Community on Ecosystem Services Conference: Linking Science, Practice, and Decision Making

December 7, 2016 Loveland, CO

Southern Rockies Seed Network 2016 Conference: Ecotypes: Science, Practice, & Policy

December 10-15, 2016 New Orleans, LA

8th National Summit: Our Coasts, Our Future, Our Choice and 25th Biennial Meeting of The Coastal Society

December 12-16, 2016 San Francisco, CA

AGU Fall Meeting

JANUARY 2017 January 4-6, 2017 Acme, MI

Northern Michigan Waterways Hazardous Material Spill Planning Committee (No-Spills): 27th Annual No-Spills Conference

January 4-8, 2017 New Orleans, LA

Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) Annual Meeting

FEBRUARY 2017 February 6-9, 2017 New Orleans, LA

Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill & Ecosystem Science Conference

February 6-9, 2017 North Charleston, SC

Coastal GeoTools 2017

February 6-10, 2017 Reno, NV

The Western Section of the Wildlife Society: 2017 Annual Meeting. North American Pika Consortium (NACP):4th meeting will be held on February 6-7, 2017. Abstracts due by November 1, 2016.

February 7-9, 2017 Fort Collins, CO

14th Annual Tamarisk Coalition Conference: The Future is Now: Forward-Thinking Restoration, Planning, and Adaptation

February 13-15, 2017 Denver, CO

17th Annual International LiDAR Mapping Forum (ILMF)

February 13-16, 2017 Washington, D.C.

Native Seed Network: 2017 National Native Seed Conference

February 16-19, 2017 Little Rock, AR

2017 Annual SEPARC Meeting: "Aligning Conservation Goals"

February 26-March 3, 2017 Honolulu, HI

Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) 2017 Conference: “From the Mountains to the Sea”

February 28–March 2, 2017 Stevens Point, WI

Wisconsin Wetlands Association's 22nd Annual Wetland Science Conference. Abstract deadline November 15, 2016.

MARCH 2017 March 1-2, 2017 Toronto, Canada

50th International Conference: Water Management Modeling. Call for papers deadline is December 31, 2016.

March 1-3, 2017 Chicago, IL

Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) and The Climate Registry: Climate Leadership Conference: Connect-ing People, Innovation, and Opportunity

March 7-9, 2017 New Orleans, LA

RES/CON

March 16-17, 2017 University of Denver Denver, CO

Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law: 26th Annual Western Places/Western Spaces Conference. Additional workshops will be held on March 15, 2017.

March 26-28, 2017 Scottsdale, AZ

National Flood Determination Association: 20th Annual NFDA Conference

APRIL 2017 April 4, 2017 Online and remote hub locations

Center for Watershed Protection Association: 2017 National Watershed & Stormwater Conference

April 5-9 2017 Boston, MA

American Association of Geographers meeting: Decolonizing Water: Indigenous water politics, resource extraction, and settler colonialism

April 17-21, 2017v Coral Springs, FL

Greater Everglades Ecosystem Restoration (GEER 2017) Conference

April 30-May 3, 2017 Snowbird, UT.

2017 AWRA Spring Specialty Conference: Connecting the Dots: The Emerging Science of Aquatic System Connectivity. Abstract deadline is January 9, 2017.

April 30-May 5, 2017 Kansas City, MO

2017 ASFPM Conference: "Flood Risk Management in the Heartland"

MAY 2017 May 4-6, 2017 Lancaster, PA

2017 Pennsylvania Land Conservation Conference: Where Land Meets Water: Protecting Our Farmland, Natural Lands, and Waterways. Submit a proposal by November 4, 2016.

May 9-12, 2017 Sacramento, CA

National Mitigation & Ecosystem Banking Conference: Invest in the Environment

May 15-19, 2017 Detroit, MI

IAGLR's 60th Annual Conference: From Cities to Farms: Shaping Great Lakes Ecosystems

May 17-20, 2017 Saint Paul, MN

Citizen Science Association: CitSci2017

May 31-June 2, 2017 Detroit, MI

Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Green Infrastructure Conference: Integrated Stormwater Management from Duluth to Quebec

JUNE 2017 June 5-8, 2017 San Juan, Puerto Rico

Society of Wetland Scientists’ 2017 Annual Meeting: Celebrating Wetland Diversity Across the Landscape: Mountains to Mangroves

June 19-21, 2017 Oregon State University Corvallis, Oregon

International Conference: Engineering and Ecohydraulics for Fish Passage

June 19-22, 2017 Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

University of Alberta: 11th North American Forest Ecology Workshop

June 25-28, 2017 Tysons, VA

2017 AWRA Summer Specialty Conference: Climate Change Solutions: Collaborative Science, Policy and Planning for Sustainable Water Management. Abstracts due by February 6, 2017.

June 27-29, 2017 New Orleans LA

US Water Alliance: One Water Summit 2017

AUGUST 2017 August 6-11, 2017 Portland, OR

2017 ESA Annual Meeting: Linking biodiversity, material cycling and ecosystem services in a changing world

August 21-25, 2017 Beijing, China

12th International Congress of Ecology (INTECOL 2017 Beijing): Ecology and Civilization in a Changing World

August 24-26, 2017 Corum, Montpellier, France

Biodiversity and Ecosystem Scenarios Network (ScenNet): Scenarios and Models of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in Support of Decision Making

OCTOBER 2017 October 14-17, 2017 Iselin, NJ

Association of State Floodplain Managers: National Flood Mitigation & FloodProofing Workshop

TRAINING

OCTOBER 2016 October 25-26, 2016 Anchorage, AK

Northwest Environmental Training Center (NWETC) Course: National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA): Writing the Perfect EA/FONSI, or EIS

October 25-28, 2016 Basking Ridge, NJ

Rutgers University Course: Methodology for Delineating Wetlands. Instructors: Ralph Tiner and Mallory N. Gilbert

October 26, 2016 Basking Ridge, NJ

Rutgers University Course: Introduction to Wetland Identification

October 26-27, 2016 Raleigh - Durham Region, NC

The Swamp School Hydric Soil Indicators Field Workshop

October 27, 2016 Anchorage, AK

Northwest Environmental Training Center (NWETC) Course: Advanced NEPA-Taking the National Environmental Policy Act to the Next Level

October 31-November 3, 2016 Columbus, OH

Richard Chinn Environmental Training, Inc. Course: Wetland Delineation Training

October 31-November 3, 2016 Pittsburgh, PA

The Swamp School Wetland Delineation Training Field and Classroom Workshop

NOVEMBER 2016 November 2-4, 2016 Raleigh, NC

North Carolina State University Stream Restoration Program Course: Natural Channel Design Principles

November 7, 2016-January 29, 2017 Online

The Swamp School Online Wetland Basic Delineation Training

November 7, 2016-January 29, 2017 Online

The Swamp School Online Certified Wetland Botanist Training

November 8-9, 2016 St. Louis Park, MN

Northwest Environmental Training Center (NWETC) Course: National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA): Writing the Perfect EA/FONSI, or EIS

November 10, 2016 Sacramento, CA

UC Davis Extension Course: Mitigation and Conservation Banking

November 10, 2016 St. Louis Park, MN

Northwest Environmental Training Center (NWETC) Course: Advanced NEPA-Taking the National Environmental Policy Act to the Next Level

November 14-15, 2016 Atlanta, GA

Duncan & Duncan Wetland and Endangered Species Training Course: Advanced Hydric Soils, Atypical Wetlands & Hydrology (Piedmont)

November 15-16, 2016 Pittsburgh, PA

The Swamp School Workshop: USACOE Hydric Soil Indicators Field Refresher

November 29-December 2, 2016 Tampa, FL

Richard Chinn Environmental Training, Inc. ACOE Wetland Delineation, Waters of the US, Regional Supplement and Florida Statewide Wetland 62-340 FAC Wetland Delineation Training

November 30, 2016 Sacramento, CA

UC Davis Extension Course: Streambank Assessment and Restoration

DECEMBER 2016 December 1-2, 2016 Denver, CO

Urban Watersheds Research Institute Course: Watershed Modeling Using CUHP-SWMM

December 1-2, 2016 Arlington, VA

Northwest Environmental Training Center (NWETC) Course: Planning and Preparing an Ecological Risk Assessment

December 2, 2016 Sacramento, CA

UC Davis Extension Course: Water Quality Regulation and Permitting

December 5-8, 2016 Santa Fe, NM

Wetland Training Institute, Inc. Course: Federal Wetland / Waters Regulatory Policy

December 5, 2016-February 26, 2017 Online

The Swamp School Online Class: Certified Wetland Hydrologist

December 5, 2016-February 26, 2017 Online

The Swamp School Online Workshop: Principles of Wetland Design

December 5, 2016-February 26, 2017 Online

The Swamp School Online Wetland Basic Delineation Training

December 9, 2016 Sacramento, CA

UC Davis Extension Course: Habitat Conservation Planning

December 12-13, 2016 Atlanta, GA

Duncan & Duncan Wetland and Endangered Species Training Course: Wetland Delineation Regional Supplement (Eastern Mountains/Piedmont)

December 12-16, 2016 Front Royal, VA

Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation Course: Statistical Downscaling of Global Climate Models using SDSM 5.2

December 12, 2016-January 8, 2017 Online

The Swamp School Online Basic Botany for Wetland Assessment

December 12, 2016-November 30, 2017

Wetland Training Institute, Inc. eSession: Plants of the Wetland Boundary

December 13-14, 2016 Tigard, OR

Northwest Environmental Training Center (NWETC) Course: National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA): Writing the Perfect EA/FONSI, or EIS

December 15-16, 2016 Charleston, South Carolina (& others)

Richard Chinn Environmental Training, Inc.: Regional Supplement Wetland Delineation Training

December 16, 2016 Sacramento, CA

UC Davis Extension Course: Mitigation Measure Development and Monitoring

JANUARY 2017 January 13-14, 2017 Charlotte, NC

Richard Chinn Environmental Training, Inc. Wetland Permitting Training

January 18, 2017 Sacramento, CA

UC Davis Extension Online Course: Overview of California Water Law and Policy

January 23, 2017-June 5, 2017

Wetland Training Institute, Inc. eSession: Principles of Wetland Ecology

FEBRUARY 2017 February 8, 2017 Online

UC Davis Extension Online Course: Environmental Justice and NEPA: Overview and Update on Recent Developments

February 10, 2017 Sacramento, CA

UC Davis Extension Online Course: Endangered Species Regulation and Protection

SPECIAL EVENTS November 2-6, 2016 Harlingen, TX

Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival

November 15-20, 2016 San Antonio, NM

Festival of the Cranes - Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge

November 24-27, 2016 Chincoteague, VA

Assateague Island Waterfowl Weekend

November 26, 2016 Stone Harbor, NJ

Wetlands Institute: Wetland Wonderland

For more wetland events, meetings, conferences, and courses nationwide, visit the ASWM calendar.

INDEX EDITOR'S NOTE EDITOR'S CHOICE

• The world just agreed to the strongest protections ever for endangered animals • The Paris climate agreement is entering into force. Now comes the hard part. • EPA Announces Over $4.6 Million in Grants for Coastal Watersheds in Southeast New • England • RELEASE: New Public-Private Partnership Launched to Help Communities Bridge Gap Between

Climate Data and Resiliency Planning • Climate change could cross key threshold in a decade: scientists • Governments of Canada and the United States have finalized a Lake Superior Lakewide Action

and Management Plan • ASWM's Hot Topics Webinar: Wetlands & Climate Change: A Summary of Current Wetland

Scientific Findings – November 15, 2016 • Wetland Mapping Consortium Webinar – Maps of Potential Wetland Extent for Selected Streams

in Indiana – November 16, 2016 • ASWM’s Improving Wetland Restoration Success Project Webinar: Long-term Management &

Legal Protections for Voluntary Restoration – November 17, 2016 • AWM’S Members’ Wetland Webinar: Developing Effective Buffer Protections: State Panelists and

Presentation of Findings from a New England Study by the New England Interstate Pollution Control Commission – November 30, 2016

NATIONAL NEWS

• Endangered Rivers of 2017: Nominations Open • Mississippi’s Claim That Tennessee Is Stealing Groundwater Is A Supreme Court First • For the First Time, Bees Declared Endangered in the U.S. • House passes waterways bill with Flint aid • Will the Klamath River Be Renewed? Owner Applies to Remove 4 of 5 Dams • Final Rule - Treatment of Indian Tribes in a Similar Manner as States for Purposes of Section

303(d) of the Clean Water Act • Scenes from New England’s Drought: Dry Wells, Dead Fish and Ailing Farms • U.S., Canada aboriginal tribes form alliance to stop oil pipelines • A Cruise Ship Just Sailed the Northwest Passage, Thanks to Climate Change • Toxic algal bloom explodes in Chesapeake Bay this summer • Soil will absorb less atmospheric carbon than expected this century, study finds • Officials: Chesapeake Bay water quality is improving • VIMS collaborates with federal partners to study algal blooms • Rivers Flowing Into the Great Lakes Are Teeming with Microplastic Pollution • Obama designates the first-ever marine monument off the East Coast, in New England • These sage grouse hens hatched 862 chicks. Within two months, 700 were dead. • Wetland paradise could become first natural World Heritage site in EU to be classed as ‘in

danger’ • Ag secretary: Bay states lead on conservation

STATES NEWS

• CA: SF Bay ecosystem collapsing as rivers diverted, scientists report • CA: California Law Recognizes Meadows and Forests as Water Infrastructure • CA Feds Support Salton Sea Action • CO: Carpenter area receives more wetlands • FL: Q&A: Polluted Water Pours into Sinkhole at Fertilizer Plant • FL: Locals cheer as Corps rejects lagoon wetland bank proposal • HI: Scientists discover hidden world of Hawaii's coral 'twilight zone' • IA: Nitrates in the water may be more harmful than we thought • LA: Climate change increased chances of record rains in Louisiana by at least 40 percent • ME: Corps, Maine DEP sign document for a special area management plan for vernal pools in

Maine • MD: Restoring wetlands: Chestnut Creek Farm owners install environmental improvements • MA: Cape Cod Owner Agrees to Restore and Preserve Wetlands to Resolve Clean Water Act

Violations • MI: Detroit banks on green infrastructure to rescue city from heavy rains • MI: Michigan's Boardman River Selected as Site for Major Fish Passage, Invasive Species

Technology Project • MN: Once nearly wiped out by pollution, wild rice is coming back to northern MN • MO: Missouri Researchers Study New Ways Farmers Can Fight Water Pollution • NV: Newmont Mining inks deal to help sage grouse habitat in Nevada • NJ: Occidental to pay $165M toward Passaic River cleanup but $1B more needed • NY: 'Never enough money' to monitor water quality, officials say • OH: State asks judge to halt transfer of wetland deeds • PA’s lagging Bay cleanup gets fiscal transfusion • UT: Utah DEQ releases PSA videos to promote approachable image • VA: Bay Foundation program lets participants help restore grass beds with home kits • WI: Contract awarded to restore Underwood Creek aquatic habitat • WI: Mining leaves a Wisconsin tribe's hallowed sites at risk • WY: Exxon agrees to pay millions for Yellowstone River spill

WETLAND SCIENCE

• Call for action to protect 'the lungs of the sea'’ • Invasive insects cause tens of billions in damage: study • Global warming could kill off ‘good bacteria’, exposing an ‘Achilles’ heel’ in the ecosystem • Yosemite's endangered frogs show signs of rebound • No big shift in U.S. flood patterns despite climate change: study • Service Acts to Prevent Harm to Native Wildlife from 11 Nonnative Species • The Deepwater Horizon spill may have caused ‘irreversible’ damage to Gulf Coast marshes • Fate of turtles and tortoises affected more by habitat than temperature • Partnering with States to Cut Nutrient Pollution • Rusty patched bumble bee proposed for U.S. endangered species status • The Secret World of Bog • Outdated FEMA Flood Maps Don't Account For Climate Change • 1.5 billion birds missing from North American skies, ‘alarming’ report finds • What the Ancient Oyster Knows • Why the EPA Doesn't Regulate Ocean Acidification • Secrets of life in the soil • Disasters And Biodiversity: Integrating The Environment Into Recovery And Reconstruction For A

Resilient Tomorrow • Researchers Develop Mathematical Model for Managing Wetlands

RESOURCES & PUBLICATIONS

• EPA Tool Helps Communities Across the Country Prepare for Climate Change • Climate Change Indicators in the United States, 2016 (Fourth Edition) • Protecting and Restoring Flows in Our Southeastern Rivers • SECURE Water Act Report to Congress

POTPOURRI

• Canada’s Fishing Industry at Risk of Major Stock Collapse • Does Big Ag Really Feed the World? New Data Says Not So Much • The greatest river in North America begins in Minnesota. But our pristine stretch of the Mississippi

faces mounting environmental threats. • Chromium-6: 'Erin Brockovich' chemical threatens two-thirds of Americans • Irrigation Nation • Be Prepared • Dammed if you do: Scientists recommend strategies to lessen dams' environmental impacts

WEBINARS, MEETINGS, TRAINING, SPECIAL EVENTS Webinars

• Hudson River Sustainable Shorelines webinar: Sustainable Shorelines Designs: from Long Island to Lake Erie

• Security and Sustainability Forum Webinar: Water is for Fighting Over and other myths about water in the west

• River Network Webinar: Water Scarcity as a Catalyst for Integrated Water Management – Creating Multiple Benefits for Your Community and River

• American Water Resources Association (AWRA) webinar: Oregon's First Integrated Water Resources Strategy: Lessons Learned Since Implementation

• Carpe Diem West Webinar: Navigating the Intersection: Western Water, Climate Change & Public Health

• The Swamp School Webinar: 2017 Nationwide Permit Update • Forester University Webinar: Specifying Engineered Soils for Sustainable Vegetation

• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Webinar - Toolkit of Available EPA Green Infrastructure

Modeling Software • Northern Michigan’s Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council webinar: Climate Change Adaptation: Best

Management Practices for Coastal Wetlands in Michigan • Association of State Wetland Managers Hot Topics Webinar: Wetlands & Climate Change: A

Summary of Current Wetland Scientific Findings • Center for Watershed Protection Webcast 6: Non-Traditional MS4s • Wetland Mapping Consortium Webinar: Maps of Potential Wetland Extent for Selected Streams in

Indiana • Association of State Wetland Managers Improving Wetland Restoration Success Project Webinar:

Long-term Management & Legal Protections for Voluntary Restoration • Association of State Wetland Managers Members' Wetland Webinar: Developing Effective Buffer

Protections: State Panelists and Presentation of Findings from a New England Study by the New England Interstate Pollution Control Commission

Meetings

• The Paris Agreement & Private Actors: Extra-jurisdictional Considerations of the Climate Agreement (2016 ELI-Miriam Hamilton Keare Policy Forum)

• Environmental Law Institute: The Business of Water (2016 Corporate Forum) • U.S. EPA Office of Research and Development, National Center for Environmental Research:

Water Reuse Grant Kick-off Meeting & Webinar • 7th Symposium on the Ecology, Status and Conservation of the Diamondback Terrapin • 14th Annual Ecological Genomics Symposium • Land Trust Alliance Rally 2016 National Land Conservation Conference • American Water Works Association: Water Infrastructure Conference & Exposition • National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP): 39th Annual Scientific Symposium and

Committee Meetings • CitiesAlive Conference: Rising to the Stormwater Challenge • North American Lake Management Society (NALMS) Symposium: Science to Stewardship:

Balancing Economic Growth and Lake Sustainability • Chicago Wilderness Congress: Celebrating 20 Years: One Home. One Future • The Environmental Law Institute and Stetson's Institute for Biodiversity Law and Policy: Fourth

Annual ELI-Stetson Wetlands Workshop • Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay: Upper Susquehanna Watershed Forum • Gulf Estuarine Research Society (GERS) / Society of Wetland Scientist South Central Chapter

Joint Meeting • Society for Ecological Restoration-Southwest Chapter Annual Conference • Quivira Coalition Conference: Lights, Soil, Action! • Connecticut Association of Conservation & Inland Wetland Commissions (CACIWC): 2016 Annual

Meeting & Environmental Conference • 2016 AWRA Annual Water Resources Conference • American Water Works Association: Water Quality Technology Conference® & Exposition • Kansas Water Office: Governor’s Conference: The Future of Water in Kansas • 7th Annual Northwest Climate Conference • 2nd Annual Do No Harm Workshop: Considerations for the Use of Non-local Species in

Ecological Restoration • Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway Association: 2016 Annual Meeting • 2016 Bay-Delta Science Conference • EcoAgriculture Partners Landscape Leadership 3-Day Intensive Workshop • Massachusetts Watershed Coalition Conference: Stormwater for Towns: Save Money! Save

Streams and Lakes! • International Forum on Water (2016IFW) • Maryland Water Monitoring Council’s 22nd Annual Conference: A River Runs Through It –

Strengthening Networks and Connections • ACES: A Community on Ecosystem Services conference: Linking Science, Practice, and Decision

Making

• Southern Rockies Seed Network 2016 Conference: Ecotypes: Science, Practice, & Policy • 8th National Summit: Our Coasts, Our Future, Our Choice and 25th Biennial Meeting of The

Coastal Society • AGU Fall Meeting • Northern Michigan Waterways Hazardous Material Spill Planning Committee (No-Spills) 27th

Annual No-Spills Conference • Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) Annual Meeting • Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill & Ecosystem Science Conference • Coastal GeoTools 2017 • The Western Section of the Wildlife Society: 2017 Annual Meeting and North American Pika

Consortium (NACP):4th meeting • 14th Annual Tamarisk Coalition Conference: The Future is Now: Forward-Thinking Restoration,

Planning, and Adaptation • 17th Annual International LiDAR Mapping Forum (ILMF) • Native Seed Network: 2017 National Native Seed Conference • 2017 Annual SEPARC Meeting: "Aligning Conservation Goals" • Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) 2017 Conference: “From

the Mountains to the Sea” • Wisconsin Wetlands Association's 22nd annual Wetland Science Conference • 50th International Conference: Water Management Modeling • Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) and The Climate Registry: Climate Leadership

Conference: Connecting People, Innovation, and Opportunity • RES/CON • 26th Annual Western Places/Western Spaces Conference • National Flood Determination Association: 20th Annual NFDA Conference • Center for Watershed Protection Association: 2017 National Watershed & Stormwater

Conference • American Association of Geographers meeting: Decolonizing Water: Indigenous water politics,

resource extraction, and settler colonialism • Greater Everglades Ecosystem Restoration (GEER 2017) Conference • 2017 AWRA Spring Specialty Conference: Connecting the Dots: The Emerging Science of

Aquatic System Connectivity • 2017 ASFPM Conference: "Flood Risk Management in the Heartland" • 2017 Pennsylvania Land Conservation Conference: Where Land Meets Water: Protecting Our

Farmland, Natural Lands, and Waterways • National & Ecosystem Banking Conference • IAGLR's 60th Annual Conference: From Cities to Farms: Shaping Great Lakes Ecosystems • Citizen Science Association: CitSci2017 • Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Green Infrastructure Conference: Integrated Stormwater

Management from Duluth to Quebec • Society of Wetland Scientists’ 2017 Annual Meeting: Celebrating Wetland Diversity Across the

Landscape: Mountains to Mangroves • International Conference: Engineering and Ecohydraulics for Fish Passage • University of Alberta: 11th North American Forest Ecology Workshop • 2017 AWRA Summer Specialty Conference: Climate Change Solutions: Collaborative Science,

Policy and Planning for Sustainable Water Management • US Water Alliance: One Water Summit 2017 • 2017 ESA Annual Meeting: Linking biodiversity, material cycling and ecosystem services in a

changing world • 12th International Congress of Ecology (INTECOL 2017 Beijing): Ecology and Civilization in a

Changing World • Biodiversity and Ecosystem Scenarios Network (ScenNet): Scenarios and Models of Biodiversity

and Ecosystem Services in Support of Decision Making • Association of State Floodplain Managers: National Flood Mitigation & FloodProofing Workshop

Training

• Northwest Environmental Training Center (NWETC) course: National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA): Writing the Perfect EA/FONSI, or EIS

• Rutgers University Course: Methodology for Delineating Wetlands • Rutgers University Course: Introduction to Wetland Identification • The Swamp School Hydric Soil Indicators Field Workshop • Northwest Environmental Training Center (NWETC) Course: Advanced NEPA-Taking the National

Environmental Policy Act to the Next Level • Richard Chinn Environmental Training, Inc. Course: Wetland Delineation Training • The Swamp School Wetland Delineation Training Field and Classroom Workshop • Natural Channel Design Principles • The Swamp School Online Wetland Basic Delineation Training • The Swamp School Online Certified Wetland Botanist Training • Northwest Environmental Training Center (NWETC) Course: National Environmental Policy Act

(NEPA): Writing the Perfect EA/FONSI, or EIS • UC Davis Extension Course: Mitigation and Conservation Banking • Northwest Environmental Training Center (NWETC) Course: Advanced NEPA-Taking the National

Environmental Policy Act to the Next Level • Advanced Hydric Soils, Atypical Wetlands & Hydrology (Piedmont) • The Swamp School Workshop: USACOE Hydric Soil Indicators Field Refresher • Richard Chinn Environmental Training, Inc. ACOE Wetland Delineation, Waters of the US,

Regional Supplement and Florida Statewide Wetland 62-340 FAC Wetland Delineation Training • UC Davis Extension Course: Streambank Assessment and Restoration • Urban Watersheds Research Institute Course: Watershed Modeling Using CUHP-SWMM • Northwest Environmental Training Center (NWETC) Course: Planning and Preparing an

Ecological Risk Assessment • UC Davis Extension Course: Water Quality Regulation and Permitting • Federal Wetland / Waters Regulatory Policy • The Swamp School Online Class: Certified Wetland Hydrologist • The Swamp School Online Workshop: Principles of Wetland Design • The Swamp School Online Wetland Basic Delineation Training • UC Davis Extension Course: Habitat Conservation Planning • Wetland Delineation Regional Supplement (Eastern Mountains/Piedmont) • Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation Course: Statistical Downscaling of Global Climate

Models using SDSM 5.2 • The Swamp School Online Basic Botany for Wetland Assessment • Wetland Training Institute, Inc. eSession: Plants of the Wetland Boundary • National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA): Writing the Perfect EA/FONSI, or EIS • Richard Chinn Environmental Training, Inc.: Regional Supplement Wetland Delineation Training • UC Davis Extension Course: Mitigation Measure Development and Monitoring • Richard Chinn Environmental Training, Inc. Wetland Permitting Training • UC Davis Extension Online Course: Overview of California Water Law and Policy • Wetland Training Institute, Inc. eSession: Principles of Wetland Ecology • UC Davis Extension Online Course: Environmental Justice and NEPA: Overview and Update on

Recent Developments • UC Davis Extension Online Course: Endangered Species Regulation and Protection

SPECIAL EVENTS

• Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival • Festival of the Cranes • Assateague Island Waterfowl Weekend • Wetlands Institute: Wetland Wonderland

The Association of State Wetland Managers' Wetland Breaking News is a monthly e-newsletter. Wetland Breaking News is an edited compilation of wetland-related stories and announcements submitted by readers and gleaned from listservs, press releases and news sources from throughout the United States. WBN chronicles the legislative, national and state news relevant to wetland science and

policy, wetland regulations and legal analysis of Supreme court cases from the past month; it also links to new publications and resources available to wetland professionals as well as events and training opportunities for those working in water resources and related fields. Wetland Breaking News has been published for over fifteen years and ASWM has been a think-tank and source for wetland science and policy news and discussion for over 30 years. The items presented in Wetland Breaking News do not necessarily reflect the views of the editor or of the Association of State Wetland Managers. Send your news items, comments, corrections, or suggestions to news@aswm.org. "WETLAND BREAKING NEWS" Compiled and Edited by Marla Stelk, Editor; Laura Burchill and Sharon Weaver, Assistant Editors. Executive Director: Jeanne Christie. Association of State Wetland Managers, 32 Tandberg Trail, Ste. 2A, Windham, ME 04062. Telephone: 207-892-3399; Fax: 207-892-3089 All photos by Jeanne Christie, ASWM