Project will build on vermont's growing wetland restoration successes by enhancing collaboration of wetland restoration partners, developing training for entities who design and implement water…

Project will build on vermont's growing wetland restoration successes by enhancing collaboration of wetland restoration partners, developing training for entities who design and implement water quality and wetland improvement projects, and monitoring at existing restoration sites for success. The project will develop the knowledge, expertise, and opportunity for wetland and water quality restoration work in vermont to accomplish a higher quality and quantity of wetlands restoration projects with better climate resiliency. The project will also update regulatory communications to the public through modifying guidance to follow plain language principles for better accessibility and community involvement and to improve reporting of regulatory activities. Restoration monitoring and coordination efforts will improve our understanding of wetland restoration recovery and allow US to help target actions to allow for an increase in floodwater storage. Enhanced restoration will open the potential for more wetland use and enjoyment by disadvantaged communities. In addition to commonly cited wetland benefits such as water quality improvements and habitat, recreation and hunting/gathering opportunities can be established or enhanced through wetland restoration. Activities:project tasks: there are three primary tasks associated with this project: restoration coordination, restoration monitoring, and regulatory communication improvements. Project tracking is specified as a task in the table. The program will create a gant chart by month, meet monthly to compare progress to chart and will write quarterly reports of progress and submit to the EPA. The vermont wetlands program will be responsible for completing all project tasks. For restoration coordination, program staff will review pollution reduction grant processes and the climate action plan to determine what guidance and training is needed to best enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of wetland project review and restoration/protection for climate and pollution reduction goals. Program staff will then create presentation and training materials, advertise trainings to project designers, present, and make the materials available online via video and social media. Staff will continue wetland roundtable meetings by scheduling meetings, developing agendas, and hosting meetings in person or virtual (if virtual is needed) with the goal of increasing collaboration and expanding technical knowledge. For the restoration monitoring task, staff will follow the established or approved revised qapp for collecting monitoring data. Monitoring sites will be selected, and landowners contacted in the fall, winter, and early spring. Level 2 rapid assessment data (plant cover, hydrology, disturbance) will be collected for all selected sites for which we grant access, with more intensive level 3 data (vegetation plots, water chemistry, soil profiles) collected for a subset of sites. The wetland restoration indicators of success (RIS) method will continue to be applied at all restoration monitoring sites. We will build on last year's training with federal nrcs staff and conservation districts and train additional restoration partners in collecting level 2 data and applying the RIS at restoration sites in the field. Level 3 site reports will be created during the winter months for all sites with level 3 data, and the program will compile multi-year restoration site monitoring data collected by the program at restoration sites in a report. Subrecipient:no subawards are included in this assistance agreement.outcomes:the milestone table outlines the milestones schedule for the two year projectperiod and pre-award work (november 2023 - january 2024). Pre-award work is needed for planning work to maximize staff time collecting data during the growing season of 2024. Major tasks are broken out into phases with associated tasks and their products. Timeframes include the a