Wetland restoration efforts in southern Illinois produce wetland systems with a wide range of management activities aimed at many different objectives. Wetlands that rely on water level manipulations are termed actively managed, while those that rely on natural hydroperiods are termed passively managed. Actively and passively managed wetlands differ considerably in financial costs and are assumed to differ in resource productivity. Through our research we plan to develop a cost effectiveness analysis (CEA) to evaluate active and passive management. Nineteen restored wetlands were randomly selected for inclusion in the study, 10 passively managed and 9 actively managed. We evaluated vegetation, macroinvertebrate and seed abundance, and bird use in 2005 and 2006 to serve as effectiveness measures for the CEA. The restoration activities and associated costs were determined for each wetland. Wetland managers were asked to keep a log recording all management activities in 2005 and 2006. We applied costs to all management activities and combined with annualized restoration costs to determine the total annual cost of each wetland. We will compare cost estimates to effectiveness measures to determine the most cost effective management alternative.

BS Ecology, Ethology, and Evolution, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign