How does Alberta regulate activities that affect wetlands? Alberta’s Wetland Policy provides a framework for conserving, restoring, protecting and managing wetlands, but understanding how it works requires looking at the regulatory tools and concepts behind it.
In this webinar, the Environmental Law Centre explores Alberta’s Wetland Policy, including how wetland value assessment helps inform regulatory decisions and replacement requirements. The discussion looks at the Alberta Wetland Rapid Evaluation Tool (ABWRET), relative wetland value assessment units, and how wetlands are classified from A to D.
The webinar also examines the wetland mitigation hierarchy: avoid, minimize and replace. It explains wetland disturbance permits under the Water Act, Wetland Assessment and Impact Reports and Forms, and how reclamation and temporary disturbance fit into the regulatory framework.
For permanent wetland loss, the discussion turns to wetland replacement, including replacement wetlands, in-lieu payments, replacement priorities and wetland replacement ratios.
The webinar also considers the information systems and reporting tools supporting wetland management, including the provincial wetland inventory, and some of the challenges in tracking wetland disturbance, replacement and in-lieu payments.
Some questions asked during the webinar include:
- How close to a wetland does a project need to be to trigger an assessment? Is there a specific distance?
- Have you seen any documentation regarding new policy reforms concerning temporary and seasonal wetlands and what low-impact activities could be?
- Can replacement funds be used for research?
- How much has the province collected in replacement fees, and how much has been deployed for restoration versus research?
- Where can the provincial Wetland Value Assessment information or documents be found?
- Has monetary compensation been updated to account for land values and increases in land values?
- Is it possible to know how often wetlands that are removed are replaced in the same watershed or natural region, and how often they are replaced somewhere else?
Watch the webinar to better understand Alberta’s Wetland Policy, how wetland impacts are assessed and managed, and the regulatory framework surrounding wetland replacement.