Land Use and Wetlands: Zoning Opportunities to Improve Wetland Protection
Wisconsin Wetlands Association (05/11)

For more information, click here. To read publication, click here.

Protecting and Restoring Wetlands: A Guide for Land Trusts
by Jon A. Kusler, Association of State Wetland Managers, Inc. (01/15/09)

This paper has been written to help strengthen the role of land trusts in protecting and restoring wetlands. First, it provides examples of how land trusts are protecting and restoring wetlands. References are provided of land trust web sites for readers who wish more detailed information. Second, it suggests how federal, state, and local governments could encourage and help land trusts protect and restore wetlands.

To read this paper in PDF, click here.

Shifting the Focus of Wetlands Protection to State and Local Governments
by Paula Schauwecker, American Bar Association (2008)

To read paper in PDF, click here.  

ELI Report: Planner's Guide to Wetland Buffers for Local Governments

March 2008. The upland area surrounding a wetland – the wetland buffer – is essential to its health and survival. Healthy wetlands and buffer areas help to control flooding, protect water flows, conserve native plants and wildlife, and support nature-friendly land use and development. Based on the Environmental Law Institute's detailed examination of more than 50 enacted wetland buffer ordinances around the nation and nine model ordinances, as well as several hundred scientific studies and analyses of buffer performance, the Planner's Guide to Wetland Buffers for Local Governments identifies both the state-of-the-art and the range of current practice in protection of wetland buffers by local governments. The Guide provides to local governments considering enacting or amending a wetland buffer ordinance what they need to know to manage land use and development in these important areas.

For a direct link to this guide, click here.

Preparing for Climate Change: A Guidebook for Local, Regional, and State Governments

For information, click here.

Protecting and Restoring Wetlands: Strengthening the Role of Local Governments
by Jon A. Kusler, Association of State Wetland Managers, Inc. (06/15/07)

This paper has been written to help strengthen local government wetland protection and restoration efforts. It first considers options for local governments to strengthen their protection and restoration efforts. Many web site references are provided for those wishing more detailed information. It then considers measures federal agencies, states, land trusts and others could take to encourage and help local governments strengthen their efforts. 

To read this paper in PDF, click here.

Common Questions: Local Government Wetland Protection Programs
by Jon Kusler, Association of State Wetland Managers, Inc. (6/26/06)

To read this guide in PDF, click here.

A Guide for Local Governments: Wetlands and Watershed Management

by Jon Kusler, Ph.D. et al., Association of State Wetland Managers, Inc. (10/01/03)
This guidebook has been written to help local governments integrate water resources management and wetland ecosystem protection efforts.  The guidebook has been written for engineers, biologists, botanists, planners, not for profit staff, legislators and others. It makes recommendations for integrating wetlands into broad watershed management efforts and more specific water programs including floodplain management, stormwater management, source water protection, point source pollution control, and nonpoint source pollution control programs.  Case study examples are provided from throughout the Nation.

To read this guide in PDF, click here.

Wetlands Protection: A Federal, State and Local Partnership

Maine Department of Environmental Protection(August 2003)
Maine possesses a wealth and diversity of wetlands unequaled in the Northeastern United States . Fully 25 percent of Maine 's land area is wetlands, four times the wetland area of the other five New England States combined. Over five million acres of Maine 's wetlands are freshwater wetlands (wooded swamps, shrub swamps, bogs, freshwater meadows, freshwater marshes and floodplains). Only 157,500 acres are tidal or coastal wetlands (tidal flats, salt marsh, freshwater/brackish marsh, aquatic beds, beaches and reefs).

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 WI DNR Smart Growth Guide 

January 2002. Madison, WI - People involved in determining the future growth and development of their communities across Wisconsin now have a new guide to turn to when making decisions regarding local wildlife and other natural resources. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, in cooperation with the University of Wisconsin-Extension, has released an 84-page "how-to" manual titled Planning for Natural Resources: A Guide to Including Natural Resources in Local Comprehensive Planning. Additionally, the Department of Natural Resources has created a new webpage devoted to land use issues and comprehensive planning.

The entire DNR comprehensive planning guide is available, here or go directly, here. To order a hard copy, click here.