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After spending two years mapping and assessing Boulder County’s wetlands, it’s hard to tell if there’s more or less wetlands than before because of the insufficient data of previous years.
However, Boulder County Parks and Open Space’s senior plant ecologist David Hirt believes that the work will provide a baseline moving forward.
Hirt presented the results of the two year wetland assessment to the Boulder County Parks and Open Space advisory committee on Thursday.
Wetlands are considered an “important environmental resource” in the Boulder County Comprehensive Plan, provide critical habitat for various plants and see use by nearly 90% of wildlife, according to a memo provided to the advisory committee. They also perform a variety of ecosystem functions like groundwater recharge, flood protection and water quality improvements.
Wetlands are considered an endangered habitat, though, due to development, changes in hydrology, invasive species and climate change.
The last wetlands update by the county was done in 2003 and the assessment and mapping of previous years was sometimes limited or flawed. The update took place over two years and prioritized marshes and sedge meadows owned by the county.
In total, 310 wetlands on Boulder County open space were mapped, encompassing 774 acres across 69 properties. There were 92 wetlands formally assessed using the Ecology Integrity Assessment protocol from the Colorado Natural Heritage Program.
Roughly one third of wetlands were in the mountains, which tended to be in better condition than the remaining two thirds of wetlands on the plains side of the county.
Hirt said the results compared to previous data were somewhat variable, though it was hard to tell due to the quality of the data from previous years. There seemed to be more mountain wetlands, though that may be because they had been previously undermapped, while there were less wetlands in the plains compared to historic mapping.
Hirt explained that the county wants to preserve the highest quality wetlands and look to restore those with mid-tier quality rating. He said that would be prioritized over the lowest rated wetlands.
“We don’t necessarily want to spend limited funds and limited time on something that may not have the hydrology for it anymore,” he said.
Advisory committee member Tony Lewis emphasized the importance of wetlands and asked what it would take to start putting more of an emphasis on protecting and restoring them further.
“I’m frankly worried because what I’ve heard is that there’s a nice baseline of data, but no clear path forward in key goals and metrics,” Lewis said.
Hirt conceded that while the county has no specific action plan for wetlands, they are an ecosystem that has always been prioritized. He added that Boulder County does not have its own wetland regulations beyond what the federal government requires.
Parks and Open Space Director Therese Glowacki explained that the department manages for multiple objectives, and agriculture and wetlands often don’t mix. She said they would further look into a possible wetland management and restoration plan.
With the baseline of a higher quality data set, the hope is to continue wetland surveying with county staff on an ongoing basis.
