Oklahoma is trying to understand its wetlands better. The Oklahoma Conservation Commission is wrapping up a five-year plan focused on these delicate ecosystems.
A wetland is an area covered or saturated with water for a significant part of the year. Wetlands cover roughly 2% of Oklahoma’s total land, but they have a big impact on water quality as they serve as a natural filtration system. Wetlands also help to minimize flooding.
OCC Director of Monitoring, Assessment and Wetlands Programs Brooks Tramell said his team developed a way to evaluate wetland conditions.
“We needed some kind of tool so we can go out and assess the condition and quality of the wetlands. So that we can pull that in a measurement and make decisions,” Tramell said. “So, if we didn’t know what we had to work with, we didn’t know what tools or what strategies we need to accomplish conservation.”
The method known as OKRAM, or Oklahoma Rapid Assessment Method, studies water quality, biology and the movement of water in wetlands.
Using OKRAM can take roughly half a day of fieldwork and half a day of working in the office to assess the condition of specific areas of wetlands.
Checking in on wetland health costs money and the commission is constantly searching for grants and other ways to fund their programs. This includes a $4 million shared grant to help alleviate the strain of nuisance species on wetlands.
The OCC, along with partners like Ducks Unlimited in Kansas, received a $4 million America the Beautiful grant to attack the problem of nuisance species.
Tramell said that these species don’t recognize a border.
“We share common problems across the border and we’re downstream of them for some of the nuisance species that we’re going to try to control,” Tramell said. “So, it was important for us to work with them for that reason and they brought their own (financial) match to the table.”
Tramell added that the commission will not pay for any of the work being done in Kansas.
The Eastern Red Cedar is one of the species that the money will help contain.
“What we’re doing there for the Eastern red cedar is filling in gaps that, that program can’t easily cover,” Tramell said. “So, it’ll typically be areas that can’t physically be controlled or maybe not easily burned.”
The Eastern Red Cedar can hurt wetland health by reducing streamflow and the water supply.
A good portion of the grant money will go towards containing Salt Cedar. Salt Cedar is an invasive, evergreen shrub that is a growing problem in western Oklahoma. Salt Cedar increases the amount of dissolved salt in riverbanks, which makes it more difficult for native plants and reduces water availability.
The work done to contain these species shows the value of the wetland protection plan, according to Tramell. This value was recognized in the state budget last year for the first time.
“That $100,000 allowed us to diversify, to bring stability and attract employees that we couldn’t attract before because we didn’t have certainty in the position,” Tramell said.
The final goal for the wetland program plan is to get to work on creating a new plan. That work begins this year and takes between 18 and 24 months.
