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A Very Visual Field Guide for Wetland Classification in Alberta
Presented by Catherine Brown, Ducks Unlimited Canada
Wetlands are an integral part of Alberta’s landscape and provide a critical role in maintaining healthy watersheds, providing habitat for waterfowl and other wildlife, maintaining upland forests, and providing many other ecosystem services and benefits. A fundamental understanding of wetlands and their functions is key to promoting conservation of Alberta’s wetlands with the people who are working on the landscape – land users and land managers. With funding and support from Alberta Innovates, the Alberta North American Waterfowl Management Plan Partnership, and the Prairie Habitat Joint Venture, Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) is leading the development of a plain-language field guide based on the Alberta Wetland Classification System (AWCS). The field guide is aptly titled the Alberta Wetland Classification System Field Guide and will be released in spring 2021. The guide contains decision keys, photographs, illustrations, wetland fact sheets, and plant identification sheets, all formatted and designed for optimizing wetland identification and classification while in the field/working on the landscape.
Join us for an overview of the AWCS Field Guide, where we will discuss further background on the project, along with wetland identification/classification based on the AWCS.