US Fish and Wildlife Service: Northeast Coastal Refuges Grant for Salt Marsh Monitoring Protocol Development

Salt marshes are ecotonal ecosystems that form the dominant transition zone between terrestrial
and marine communities and are critical for absorbing the energy of ocean storms and preserving
shorelines, improving water quality in bays and estuaries, providing nutrients to marine
food webs, and supplying critical habitat for both the reproduction of a suite of ocean species and
for use by an entire community of breeding and migratory birds. Wildlife species that depend on
salt marshes are some of the highest conservation priorities, many of which occur in coastal US
Fish and Wildlife Service, National Wildlife Refuges. Most salt marshes are impacted to some
extent by some type of anthropogenic alteration and are threatened by accelerated rates of sealevel. Understanding how best to measure the effects of these alterations on salt marsh condition and wildlife habitat quality of habitat were the focus of the project Development of a Salt Marsh Assessment Tool to Monitor System Integrity and Provide Management Priorities for WildlifeConservation in Response to a Hierarchy of Threats (Neckles et al. 2011). This project
identified monitoring metrics that were linked to both management and fundamental objectives
and tested each metric to determine which method (rapid vs. intensive) was most effective and
efficient.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Region 5 is now planning to implement the Salt Marsh
Integrity Monitoring Protocol (Neckles et al. 2011) to assess and track the condition of salt
marsh habitats on USFWS Refuges with salt marsh habitats. To assist in the development of this
long-term monitoring program we will draft a monitoring and test a monitoring protocol
following Oakley et al. (2003) and USFWS I and M Standards that will provide the details
necessary to fully implement the Salt Marsh Integrity monitoring in Region 5.
This protocol will develop refuge specific sampling designs for all refuges in USFWS Region 5
with salt marsh habitat (Rachel Carson, Parker River, RI Complex, Stewart B. McKinney,
Wertheim, Edwin B. Forsyth, Bombay Hook, Prime Hook, Chesapeake Bay Complex,
Chincoteague, Fisherman Island, and Eastern Shore of Virginia) and integrate all the previously
identified and tested metrics for monitoring salt marsh integrity.

Objectives:
1) Work cooperatively with USFWS staff to draft the Salt Marsh Integrity Monitoring Protocol;
2) Define monitoring objectives for each metric or suite of metrics;
3) Develop sampling designs for all USFWS Refuges in Region 5 with salt marsh habitat
that integrates existing sampling frames
4) Coordinate with the National Park Service, Northeast Coastal Barrier Inventory and
Monitoring Network to identify and enhance similarities in salt marsh condition
monitoring between refuges and parks;
5) Develop field sampling maps to be included in the appropriate SOPs;
6) Develop analytical procedures to analyze the monitoring data including the development
of a bird community integrity index that standardizes scores across all refuges;
7) Coordinate a pilot field implementation season (2012)
8) Draft protocol with all SOPs

Product Due Date: April 2013

Neckles, H. A., G. Guntenspergen, G. Shriver, N., Danz, W. Wiest, J. Nagel, and J. Olker. 2011.
Development of a Salt Marsh Assessment Tool to Monitor System Integrity and Provide
Management Priorities for Wildlife Conservation in Response to a Hierarchy of Threats.
Draft report submitted to USFWS Region 5.
Oakley, K. L., L. P. Thomas, and S. G. Fancy. 2003. Guidelines for longterm monitoring
protocols. Wildlife Society Bulletin 31: 1000 through 1003