REVIEW PANELS AND REVIEW PROCESS 



The desire of the Federal agencies involved in wetland 

 identification and delineation for a Federal list of plant species 

 that occur in wetlands led to the suggestion by the Fish and 

 Wildlife Service that a review process be established similar to 

 that developed to review the Hydric Soils of the United States 

 (U.S. Department of Agriculture 1987). In early 1983, the Fish 

 and Wildlife Service formally requested that the Army Corps of 

 Engineers, Environmental Protection Agency, and Soil Conservation 

 Service participate cooperatively in an interagency review and 

 development of a National List of Plant Species That Occur in 

 Wetlands . Each agency nominated staff wetland ecologists with a 

 strong background in wetland botany to a National Interagency 

 Review Panel. Two organizational meetings were held in the summer 

 of 1983 to determine the responsibilities and goals of the National 

 and Regional Interagency Review Panels and the structure of the 

 review process. The four Federal agencies also nominated staff 

 wetland ecologists to represent them on each of the Regional Review 

 Panels. Selection and appointment of the Regional Interagency 

 Review Panel representatives was completed by each agency by the 

 spring of 1984. All four agencies have been represented on most 

 Review Panels, with some change in agency representatives occurring 

 through the years . 



Initial organizational meetings for all the conterminous United 

 States Regional Interagency Review Panels were held in 1984. The 

 regional review process was discussed, and review materials were 

 developed. Potential reviewers, principally field botanists and 

 ecologists associated with State and Federal agencies and 

 universities, were identified for each region, and the 

 responsibility for contacting the potential regional reviewers was 

 partitioned among the Review Panel members . Regional reviewers 

 were contacted during the summer and fall of 1984 to determine if 

 they could review the list and return their review comments by the 

 winter of 1984-85. Regional reviewers were sent the most current 

 copy of the regional list (dated September 1982) during the summer 

 and fall of 1984. The Regional review lists contained, for many 

 species, a tentative Indicator assignment developed from the data 

 collected for the Annotated National Wetland Plant Species Data 

 Base. All the Regional Review Panels met during the spring of 1985 

 to consider the review provided by the regional ecologists. A 

 total of 142 ecologists and botanists from across the country 

 initially reviewed the 1982 lists. The number of reviewers varied 

 from 10 to 30 per region. Regional reviewers assigned a wetland 

 Indicator to as many species as possible, based upon their field 

 experience, using Cowardin et al. (1979) for the definition of a 

 wetland. 



