1A: Straightforward Administrative Fixes Could Better Support Wetland Restoration

Utah communities rely on healthy wetlands to manage droughts and flooding events and to provide essential wildlife habitat. Native vegetation in degraded wetlands often needs to be reseeded or replanted to fully support these ecosystem services, but many native species are hard to source from vendors. A new survey of wetland managers and native plant vendors in the Intermountain West illustrates how some fixes to administrative and funding cycles could aid wetland restoration (Figure 1.A.1).

Challenges managers face include budget limitations, too few employees, conflicts with recreation and cultural resources, and lack of access to diverse native wetland plant species. Vendors report that it is difficult to take risks on new native plant species that managers may seek.

Managers of wetlands would benefit from increased funding and longer funding cycles to hire and retain qualified personnel, and increased awareness of the importance of wetlands. Vendors report that contracts with managers could alleviate hardship from market fluctuations and improve the number of species they can make available. Short funding cycles often prevent managers from planning far enough into the future to give vendors the lead time they need to make new species available for purchase. Funding restrictions often do not allow managers to provide funds until they receive the plant product. Changes to these timelines could help. Financial incentives to produce new or difficult-to-grow species would offset the high costs vendors have to consider when offering new species. The survey results underscore the need for funding entities to prioritize wetland revegetation efforts in an informed way to support production of native wetland seeds and plants.