Stretching from the historic Chesapeake Bay, along the coastline of the Atlantic; across the Gulf into the mysterious bayou swamps of Louisiana; to eastern Texas and up the Mississippi, wetland forests are a valuable, yet vulnerable national treasure. A "wetland forest" is any forest that is submerged partially or completely through the year. It can include riparian forests, swamps, coastal forests, and isolated wetlands like the Pocosins of the Carolinas.
Before colonization, wetland forests stretched across the U.S. South. Current estimates suggest that up to 80% of wetland forests in the south have disappeared since European colonization. The remaining 35 million acres represent an opportunity for conservation, environmental, forestry, and community groups to work together to conserve, restore, and improve the natural landscape to benefit all. In 2017, a public initiative was launched to gather diverse stakeholders together to answer the question of how to positively impact wetland forests in the US South. Since then, the group has participated in multi-year planning process to develop discrete goals for wetland forests in the South.
Results/Conclusions
By focusing on developing a group that adequately represents diverse viewpoints, the strategic plan has become a comprehensive document that addresses the threats to wetland forests (agricultural conversion, silvicultural impacts, development, among others) and how to mitigate them. By operating through consent, each partner stays within their "range of tolerance" despite being diametrically opposed on several issues (e.g., how to manage, harvest, or conserve forests). By continually striving to include community voices, the strategic plan is grounded in reality and has "buy in" from several groups of people that are not ordinarily involved in traditional conservation planning efforts. This model of inclusive conservation planning should be applied to other landscape scale conservation initiatives, and lessons from this experience should be incorporated into discussions of scientific outreach and community impact.