National Wetland Condition Assessment Report

We are pleased to announce that the Office of Water released the latest National Wetland Condition Assessment Report today. The public release includes the web-report entitled “ National Wetland Condition Assessment: The Third Collaborative Survey of Wetlands in the United States ,” the accompanying “NWCA 2021 Technical Support Document,” the NWCA Data Dashboard and new data files.  You can access the NWCA web report directly at  https://wetlandassessment.epa.gov/webreport/ and the Data Dashboard at https://wetlandassessment.epa.gov/dashboard.   You can access all of the information related to the release from the NWCA webpage at https://www.epa.gov/national-aquatic-resource-surveys/nwca.  Data for this report are available on the NARS Data page (https://www.epa.gov/national-aquatic-resource-surveys/data-national-aquatic-resource-surveys) and you can use the NARS Data Download tool (https://rconnect-public.epa.gov/nars-data-download/) to access the data for your state or a selection of states more easily.

This report presents the results of the 2021 survey of the nation's wetlands representing the condition of 81,694,381 acres of wetland area. Results from NWCA can help us better understand the condition of wetlands in the United States and some of the stressors affecting them, such as these key takeaways:

• Less than half of wetland area was rated good, based on an analysis of plant communities.
• Nonnative plants are a widespread concern.
• Physical alterations to wetlands are the most widespread stressors measured.
• Nutrient levels are elevated for some wetlands.
• Microcystins, a type of cyanobacteria toxin, were present, but at very low levels, posing minimal recreational human health concerns.

We anticipate the Office of Water will be putting out announcements through social media. Please feel free to have your organizations “retweet” or use any of the messaging.  

Please let Gregg Serenbetz (Serenbetz.gregg@epa.gov), the lead for the wetlands survey, or Sarah Lehmann (lehmann.sarah@epa.gov), NARS Team Lead, know if you have questions.

-NWQMC

Taxonomy

• Impact Assessment
• Risk Assessment
• Wetlands
• Environmental Impact Assessment
• Constructed Wetlands
• Condition Assessment
• Groundwater Assessment
• Environmental Assessment & Management
• Environmental Impact Assessment
• Wetlands
• Stormwater Assessment
• Groundwater monitoring and assessments
• Floating Treatment Wetlands
• Source Vulnerability Assessment