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 Hvdric 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. 



The Regional Interagency Review Panels examined the Indicator assignments 

 suggested by each reviewer and any additional supporting documentation which 

 reviewers provided. Each of the Regional Review Panel members independently 

 synthesized the review received and developed a regional Indicator assignment 



