 So our next speaker is Brittany White. So Brittany is a division of water biologists specializing in plants. She has spent several years working in wetlands across the southeast and is happy to work in Kentucky now searching for salamanders, admiring soil profiles and of course looking at plants. Although not in her job description she also specializes in performing terrible nature based parodies for her coworkers. And when she's not at work she enjoys meandering the woods with her best month Evelyn and hanging out with her kiddos and having far too many hobbies than is reasonable so I empathize with you and very similar Brittany. At Nature Busers we work with Brittany, helping QC and identify some of the plant specimens for the program that she'll be talking about so Brittany, where are you? Hey. I'm going to figure out how to share my screen and my computer doesn't like to do video sharing and screen sharing at the same time. So I just wanted to pop in and say hi and then I'm going to stop sharing my videos. Awesome. I'm going to figure out how to do this. Perfect. Okay, so as Tara just introduced me I'm Brittany White I'm a wetlands biologist with the division of water. And today I'm going to talk to you a little bit about what we're doing as a program overall and a lot of it about what we're doing in terms of plants. So for the little bit of time that I get today I'm just going to pretend that we are actually the division of plants. I know a lot of people already understand this but I'm going to try to briefly explain this for anyone in the audience that doesn't know the background of the project. Lots of states have lists of things ranging from birds to snakes that give each critter or plant a value known as its sea score. I'm not going to get into the statistics or the numbers in general because I'm not even good at it myself. So the idea is that species that are more common and thus more tolerant of stressors have a lower score, whereas some of our more diva species that are more rare and need a little bit more pristine conditions have a higher score. So the species present represent environmental tolerance levels and therefore pretty good indicators of disturbance. That's not to say that you can't have a rare plant and total garbage shoot as I found the summer, but usually more tolerant species will be found in more degraded areas and lower tolerance species and higher quality habitats. So all that being said, currently the Kentucky Division of Water has two plant specific surveys that we do. We do the Viby and the NWCA samplings. The NWCA is actually a federal program that we do with the sampling that occurs every five years. And the Viby we will hopefully start doing every year if I have my druthers about it. They're very similar in the data that we collect for each survey but I'll touch more on that in a bit. What I wanted to point out were some of the obvious differences here. And that's the plot design and the layout. As you can see in traditional layouts for both of these. One Viby plot consists of 10 modules and there are four intensive modules to each plot, whereas NWCA only consists of five plots and they're actually separate so they get called plots instead of a module. In the Viby design there are four levels of intensity for each of the intensive modules which are these four and gray. And in the NWCA design there are only three levels of intensive so this is kind of difficult to explain if you've never done it so I'll just show you. So as you can see I don't know if y'all can see my mouse or not. But you can see that there's different levels here so that we do for a Viby so we search the smallest level for document every species we find moving on to level three to so forth and you go to the opposing corner and do it again. So all of this is exactly the same as what you do in NWCA minus the teeniest tiniest level. Anyway now that we're done with that sidebar we'll get back on track. The data collected is then combined into create metrics that are typed into a handy dandy Excel sheet then spit out and the numbers that reflect the quality of the wetland. And this is really cool because regardless of what a lot of the criteria biologists I worked with will tell you plants are really awesome and people simply don't get plants enough credit out there. There's not a lot of people that could do larval amphibian IDs and since in the future will be relying on consultants and stuff to do these surveys. Plants make a really accessible survey and it's relatively easy to do in terms of intensity, although after this summer my back might completely argue with that. But getting into the actual surveys. We'll start. I'm only going to mention the ones that I was involved with. There were plenty of surveys done before my time but I can't really talk about that much. So we'll start with NWCA, which I know some of you that are on the call were actually part of NWCA sampling in the past. It's part of the NARS survey and like I said it's a federal thing with EPA. So it goes along with lakes surveys which I believe is next year rivers and streams survey stuff like that. NWCA survey happens every five years and this was the first year I was involved with it. So NWCA is cool because the data will show current and long term trends in wetland conditions both in Kentucky and on the national level. With NWCA you don't just do the plant surveys either it also examines things like the chemical physical and biological integrity wetlands. We do things like soil and water sampling document disturbance in and around the wetlands and things like that. I'll show you some pictures from that later because there's some fun ones but the map shown here is our 2021 sites. There were 12 sites total and we ended up doing two revisits. So the NWCA survey collects a plethora of information. Each plot gets a species list each species is given a high class regardless of whether it's woody species or not ranging from a small as point five meters all the way to greater than 30 meters as well as percent cover for each species. For the tree data any species that has a dbh greater than five centimeters it gets tallied and snags are also listed and measured. You get to document floating or submerged vegetation graphite cover and abiotic information as well like bare ground leaf litter surface water presence and it's depth this isn't exactly everything that's created but you kind of get the point. So here are some examples of the data collection for the this year's NWCA. This year it was completed completely electronically, which was unfortunately not without incident but through grid of teeth I will say that's okay. The first image you see is the tree form where you put in the percentage of woody species in high classes and also where you put in the tallies for dbh. This is a fairly contentious form for me this year, because on the other screen I'll show you you put in a high class there, but then when you pull up the tree species you should be able to divide the height class amongst the tree species. And that didn't always allow you to do that. So regardless we'll just go past that. And the second picture like I said shows you all that you need to know you enter your species you select which corner and depth and level you're in give it a high class and a cover. And you can also select if this is an unknown species and I'm looking at you grasses, or if your plant was collected as a quality assurance plant. So from there if it's a woody species you can go ahead and enter that data to and that'll flip you over to that tree species form that I was showing you. So, even though I'm grumbling a little bit about the app, I will say my data collectors weren't always plant people so to save me from having to phonetically say everything like a line this which was just a pain for me. And it has a drop down list of plants so they didn't have to decipher anything that I was trying to call out, and I could totally just give them a few letters and the correct genius would pop up so that was phenomenal for me. So now that that's out of the way here are a few examples of us setting up the plots. The first is that Ballard WMA, and it was actually a traditional circle layout like I showed you earlier, and Becky here it was leading the setup she's got her compass out and she learned to rock this. I'm not very good at going straight so it didn't work out for me. The second image is from Laurel County. According to the landowner the property was a former strip mine, and it was also used for cattle up until I think last year maybe. Anyway, the wetland is more narrow and thus it didn't get a traditional plot layout. It was also Tyfa dominated wetland, which I don't know I kind of like them because it's kind of like trying to find hide and seek with the Tyfa and it keeps me a little bit sane. So another two examples are Cinevacchi into Kentucky Lake, and the second is both the soil plot and some of the veg plots in the very, very mucky Mississippi River near by Dushan and Obayan Creek. This was a stupid hot day and the Mississippi felt like bathwater. So I really don't want to be that person but I was secretly happy that there were not many plants on this site. And the moment that you have all been waiting for is the highly anticipated Kentucky Viby. So, how do we look to use the Viby in the future? Where are we at with the Viby? All these good questions. Hopefully I can answer some of them but we're still working on it. Okay, so we're hoping to get it used for long term monitoring of sites, be it for ambient conditions or for mitigation, we are hoping to use it on our side for for ambient and for consulting side for mitigation. So it'd be a useful tool for showing changes in plant communities over time. And what we're really hoping to do is use it as a tool for assisting with permitting decisions and determining mitigation ratios. And what we're also trying to do is get our mitigation ratios set up. We're going through legislation trying to work with everybody above us, trying to get it set up so there's better ratio scores. So anyway, that's regulatory and that's not me. So you can see in this map that all the Viby sites we use to calculate our newest round of metrics for the EPA. It doesn't look like there's that many but I promise you if you were to zoom in there's like a ton of them under those little circles. I promise there's more. But anyway, this doesn't include our 2021, our 2020 and our 2021 sites but I'll have a map of those in a little bit. So Viby collections started back in 2011 when EKU and the Division of Water Banded Together to create the Kentucky Viby and EKU students put in a lot of really hard work on the creation of the Viby, the RAM and the Disturbance Index. I just want to clarify I was not one of those students so I'm not doing my own horn over here but I am genuinely appreciating them because after being involved in this it is tough. So even though the Viby looks a little bit different now than it did when they did the work, it still is providing a solid backbone for what we're trying to do now. A lot of the data collected is the same as the NWCA sampling. So for species coverage, woody stems, DBH, moss, abiotic factors, all the good things. So we've been able to use the Viby as part of our validation of the Kentucky RAM, a wetland rapid assessment method, which we're hoping to also get pushed through soon. Now all that being said, there is a caveat to all of this. The last Viby that EKU developed was a geometric method that did an average C score and an invasive species cover. We just recently did a new one for EPA for our report due last month that we're not done with. We just recently did that and we've actually been able to ramp it up a couple of different metrics, add a few different metrics to that, and we're going to look into EPA's method of running the data and see if we can also add more that way. So it's really is a works in progress. And as I mentioned earlier, since consultants are going to be the one using this tool, we want it to both provide the best protections of wetlands possible because that is what we're here for. We are here for wetlands. But also, we want it to be something that people can use and that people embrace without giving us too much pushback. So let's be real, y'all. I personally don't want to count every single stem of rubus and a 2550 plot. And I don't want other people have to do that either. So look for more updates to come in the future, and it'll hopefully be better. So the data collection for the baby looks a little bit more old school. I heard Chris mentioned earlier that he liked the new mobile update that they have. So be careful whether or not your pencil has a living being at the end of it, but that's okay. I still like the paper collection. A former coworker actually created a more interactive Excel spreadsheet that we could upload to Google Docs and then use offline on an iPad. It's really good because it has data checks built into the system. So if you found a tree species in vegetation form to, then it would flag it that you hadn't found it in your intensives and the same plot on veg one. So anyway, it's really good, but it's just really clunky to use because this year we did both baby and NWCA at the same time. So I was just honestly hot and didn't want to deal with it. It really does allow, I think consultants to be able to have a resource that will get them started when they want to put it into anything like collector survey 123 anything like that. So anyway, I still use that form to do data checks postfield and it's really nice. I just wanted to show you guys a little bit about where we go when we do these surveys we don't always get to pick where we go. Some are just random points assigned by the EPA while others are more targeted. As you can see, sometimes we have absolutely gorgeous beautiful spots. The second picture is actually one of my favorite 2020 sites. I got to visit it several times over a year and watch it change with beaver activity. My partner called it a wasteland, but at that point I kind of thought that he was a waste of air but now I'm just kidding. He was actually really nice. I just got really defensive with this wetland because it was beautiful. Another quick story, the first pictures from NWCA sampling this year. I was getting pretty burnout for the season feeling pretty rough, but I got to go there one morning by myself in September to finish up a baby that we had set up prior. The picture and the sunshine and everything added up to where it was just so insanely beautiful. I actually kind of choked up a little bit at a WMA and I am not even ashamed of that. So on the flip side of that, are you even really outside if you don't see it but like him. That's my question for you all. You can see, speaking of all this bad things. There's a ton of gross oil dripping all over Western Kentucky. That was pretty disheartening since that's where I was most of the time. And I am assuming that the site in particular was a former homestead site because that's a ton. And then the first image is what happens when you let parents drink and play with their kids toys. You can see the liquor and the upside down toys. But the second image also if you guys are looking to refurbish at ski hit me up. I've got some permits for you. We don't always get to go to big spots. And we have to include really poor quality sites in our studies as well. So there's a reason for that. And then to be fair, if you're thinking that the second site actually isn't that bad, you're right. It was one of our reference sites and it's actually super beautiful but my goodness, the mosquitoes were awful but luckily my youngest son literally had me covered with some sweet Spiderman garb that deflected a lot of those blood suckers. All really bad jokes aside, the 2020 baby sites were in Eastern Kentucky in the Western Allegheny plateau coincidentally while we were sampling that was the same time the Cardi B song came out with her famous hit. So we definitely had some certified jokes about that whole time. Anyway, it was really an interesting time to sample both because of the pandemic and because of the combination of people we had. We were one of the only groups in our branch that sampled consistently that year. So you had all these phenomenally smart bug and fish people stuck inside rotting away basically, and I drove them out into wetlands and made them help me with plants so talk about fish out of water. And but for those people that were used to walking up creeks and then suddenly had to wade through a bunch of muck instead. They worked hard so I let them play hard at the end of the day to. So these were our 2020 sites. I think I'm going to be competing with Kindle here for super professionally drawn maps, but 25 sites total nine of those were reference sites and we don't currently have an exact number that says hey I'm a reference site. And we're also kind of working on that right now too we actually just had a discussion on that Monday, but we're getting there. So moving on. The 2021 baby sampling was performed, like I said earlier at all of our NWCA sites as a way to both test data compatibility between NWCA, so many acronyms and WCA sampling and the baby sampling, and also as a way to kind of beef up our data set. It wasn't really done at all NWCA sites though. I may have gotten a little grumpy and pulled the plug on one of those sample slides, but what happens in Davies County stays in Davies County, so we only have 11 sites this year. It's fine. This year we also had a more consistent field crew and we were able to co-worker and app our Western Kentucky friends to get them more involved in wetlands. I guess they don't seem like a really big deal to you all, but the wetlands program started as one division of water person working on it part time to then one full time person with some help to two full time people. And now there's three full time wetland people with three other people helping on this side. So we've lost a few people and gained a few people here and there, but still have more than ever before. Now that we have that support. It's, it's awesome. I mean, I can't say it enough. This means that all those data gaps that I've kind of been skirting around this whole time are finally starting to be addressed. And there's dedicated team members putting in consistent efforts. So it's really awesome. I'm really excited about the future of our program. And yes, that is a co-worker and a pit. This is part of our NWCA sampling. If you're starting to notice, I really don't like mosquitoes also. So here's another superbly drawn map of our 2021 sites. The focus was heavily Western Kentucky, but you can see those two little weird outliers and Lincoln and Laurel County. One of those was also our readers of sites. And as an aside, completely unrelated 2021 also gave me an experience I wasn't expecting the pictures do not do this justice, but this was a massive ragweed forest. And for perspective, I'm 55 and holding a roughly meter long flag. And it was still taller than all of us. And we did the DPH on some of it. It was like three centimeters. It was massive and very impressive. So aside from sampling, we also provide training to other groups, both external and internal. And technically this first one is a Kentucky Ram training for a 401 group, but just pretend for a moment. And then the second one is a baby training for Philo Kentucky fish. So we do these trainings in Frankfurt at cove Springs or behind Buffalo trace distillery. We even did a 401 baby training, which I don't know why I don't have pictures of this but we did it at Capitol Park. So if anyone is interested in training, please let me know we'd be happy to try to set something up for you. We also try to include opportunities for in the field education moments. Our group is a great wonderful group of naturalist, and we have so many different interests, even if we're not specialists in it. So it's always wonderful to exchange knowledge with each other. And, you know, we did like a little Carrick's group every time we could get a chance to pull a bunch up together and then it usually ended up me pointing out to my coworkers why trees are the absolute worst and why we refused to look up. But it is fun. So I know this is a plant group but like I said we are the wetlands program in general. So on top of plant sampling we also do the Kentucky brand, as well as avian surveys water chemistry and amphibian sampling. So I just wanted to touch on those briefly so you can see all the other cool things we're doing in wetlands. So he was doing our avian surveys, he just recently got an opportunity to move closer to home and work for NRCS. So we don't have quality cameras to be taking pictures of birds so here's some photos of him and his equipment and stuff. So, he got to do some pretty cool stuff and we're sad he's gone. Our amphibian surveys are probably the most intense surveys that we do on the regular in WCA was a beast, but that's okay. So we get to dress goofy and carry these military backpacks full of modified minotraps in them. Then we set them out in transects dip net and come back the next day and sort through the contents in a bucket. And believe it or not these little homemade traps actually catch some cool stuff. So it was pretty exciting. And I just prefer to think of these as plant friend surveys so it's really not that big of a deal. And as I mentioned before we all have a pretty broad interest so we are constantly looking at butterflies and moffs and anything else that we can find. So, yeah. Aside from being pretty good biologist we're also pretty awesome at digging holes. As we found out this year. Anyway, now that you know that I'm a little bit more about our program, I am going to do a shameless plug. And if you guys know of any cool wetlands we are always looking for reference wetlands to kind of amp up our data set so here's my email, please let us know and we are always on the lookout. Brittany, one question for you. How were your sites selected for your NWCA surveys. So the NWCA the EPA actually sends a list of different sites that they target with GIS, and then it's our job to go through each of those sites. The NWCA doesn't require the traditional three sets of wetland things so plant hydrology soil. So if you have any one of those three you get to count it as a NWCA site. And so yeah, you just start at the top of the list work down and hope that landowners give you permission and hope that it has at least one of those three criteria for wetlands. The second question from John Abrams. Is there a link to the updated Vibi protocol somewhere that you could send out to people. We haven't submitted it completely to the EPA yet but as soon as we get that done we will totally get that out.