Plans to construct a wetland to replace wetland losses has become a common feature of permit requests. The purpose of this project is to suggest a methodology for quantifying the effectiveness of palustrine forested wetland construction in Virginia. Wetlands constructed by ~ne Virginia Department of Transportation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were surveyed and Wagner Road constructed wetland in Petersburg, Virginia was selected as the primary study site. Chapter One of the present study suggests a method for early assessment of revegetation success utilizing weighted averages of colonizing vegetation. An adjacent reference site was chosen that was in close proximity to the constructed site and was used for comparison. Results from the Wagner Road site and the reference wetland indicated that colonizing vegetation weighted averages provide a more sensitive measure of revegetation success than the methods described in the federal wetland delineation manual.

Ph. D.