Wetlands are not always obvious. They can present building projects with difficult challenges, especially when encountered unexpectedly. Wetlands also provide services, such as habitat and flood control, that are costly to replace if lost. A diversity of wetlands occupy the landscape. Some are so wet, and difficult to work in that they are avoided. Others are not as easy to identify, and are sometimes only discovered after a project has begun, yet they still present challenges. Some challenges affect the immediate building site, while others affect neighbors and more distant resources. It may be relatively easy to shunt unwanted water off-site, but the recipient may not welcome that solution.

Mat-Su Wetland Mapping Project (2007-2009)

The National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) has developed maps for most of the Mat-Su Borough which identify wetlands locations and types.  However the NWI maps were developed to describe wetlands on a nationwide scale, have many errors, and frequently omit forested wetlands.  Therefore, the Mat–Su Borough with funding assistance from the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the US Army Corps of Engineers, hired a contractor to describe and map wetlands on a more relevant local scale, including field verification for the central region of the Mat-Su Borough. As of 2009, over 375,000 acres of the Mat-Su Borough have been mapped by Mike Gracz, an ecologist from the Kenai Watershed Forum and PhD student at the University of Minnesota, [who had just completed updating NWI maps on over 830,000 acres of the Kenai Peninsula]. Mike uses stereoscopic photography, soils and geologic maps, and site visits involving sediment coring, water chemistry testing, and vegetation sampling to describe and map wetlands. The MS Wetlands Maps and links to descriptions and photographs can be found on the Wetlands Parcel Viewer.

For more information on wetlands throughout the Cook Inlet Basin see also cookinletwetlands.info.