Public and private land managers are being asked to improve or maintain wetland (lentic) habitat and water quality on lands throughout the western North America. Three questions that are generally asked about a wetland site are: 1) What is the potential of the site (e.g., climax or potential natural community)? 2) What plant communities currently occupy the site? and 3) What is the overall health (condition) of the site? For a lentic (still water) site, the first two questions can be answered by using the Alberta Lentic Wetland Inventory Form along with a document such as Classification and Management of Riparian and Wetland Sites of the Alberta Grassland Natural Region and Adjacent Subregions (Thompson and Hansen 2002), Classification and Management of Riparian and Wetland Sites of Alberta’s Parkland Natural Region and Dry Mixedwood Natural Subregion (Thompson and Hansen 2003), Classification and Management of Riparian and Wetland Sites of the Saskatchewan Prairie Ecozone and Parts of Adjacent Subregions (Thompson and Hansen 2001) or a similar publication written for the region in which you are working.
This Lentic Wetland Health Assessment (Survey) is a method for rapidly addressing the third question above: What is the site’s overall health (condition)? It provides a site rating useful for setting management priorities and stratifying wetland sites for remedial action or closer analytical attention. It is intended to serve as a first approximation, or coarse filter, by which to identify lentic wetlands in need of closer attention so that a manager can more efficiently concentrate effort. We use the term lentic (still water wetland) health to mean the ability of a lentic wetland to perform certain functions. These functions include sediment trapping, shoreline maintenance, water storage, aquifer recharge, wave energy dissipation, maintenance of biotic diversity, and primary production.