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Course Status: Not Currently Scheduled
The next offering of this course is tentatively planned for Winter 2023. Please join our email list to be notified when registration opens!
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Course Overview
Wetland plants, also known as hydrophytes or hydrophytic vegetation, have adaptations that enable them to grow and reproduce with their roots in water or saturated soil for at least part of the year. In contrast, plants that cannot survive in saturated conditions are commonly referred to as upland plants.
Along with hydric soils and hydrology, the presence of wetland plants is one of the primary factors involved in the identification of wetland areas and the delineation of wetland boundaries. Therefore, the ability to identify wetland plants and and distinguish between upland and wetland plant species is an essential step in the wetland delineation process.
This 2-day course gives you the opportunity to increase your wetland expertise by learning to identify vegetation during the winter months! Through a combination of classroom and field training, nationally recognized wetland expert Ralph Tiner will give you the tools to gain a competitive edge in the field of wetland delineation all year long.
By examining criteria such as bark, twigs, and other leafless characteristics, you’ll learn how to positively identify wetland plants even when winter conditions eliminate leaves as a distinguishing feature.
On the field trip day, please dress accordingly for the outdoors!
NOTE: This course is NOT part of the Wetland Delineation Certificate Series. If you wish to earn the certificate, you must take Vegetation Identification North or South.
Featured Topics
Featured Plant Communities Covered in this Winter Vegetation Identification Course:
- Freshwater Marsh
- Scrub Shrub Swamp
- Red Maple Swamp
- Floodplain Forest
- Upland Meadow
- Wet Meadow
Course Agenda
Day 1: Online via Zoom
| 8:15 am – 8:30 am: | Log-in and Attendance |
| 8:30 am – 9:15 am: | Housekeeping Introduction of Instructor Introductions of Students Introduction to the Course Overview of References |
| 9:15 am – 10:50 am: | Winter Plant Identification Bark, Twigs, Leaves General Woody Plant Morphology Woody Plant Terminology Use of Winter Botany Keys |
| 10:50 am – 11:00 am: | Break |
| 11:00 am – 12:30 pm: | Use of keys to identify woody plants |
| 12:30 pm – 1:00 pm: | Lunch |
| 1:00 pm – 3:30 pm: | Use of keys to identify collected specimens Detailed photographs of selected species |
| 3:30 pm – 4:00 pm: | Review and Q & A |
Day 2: Classroom/Field Session
| 8:00 am – 8:30 am: | Registration |
| 8:30 am – 11:00 am: | Identifying collected specimens in class |
| 11:00 am – 11:30 am: | Lunch |
| 11:30 am – 12:00 pm: | Bus to field location/field exercise |
| 12:00 pm – 4:00 pm: | Outdoor Session |
| 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm: | Return to classroom/Wrap-up |
Who Should Attend?
This wetland vegetation identification course is designed for anyone who wants to gain experience identifying wetland plants during the winter months. Past participants have included:
- Ecologists and Biologists
- Engineers
- Environmental Scientists, Environmental Consultants, and Environmental Planners
- Forestry Specialists
- GIS Analysts
- Horticulturists and Arborists
- Landscape Architects, Landscape Designers, and Landscape Contractors
- Land Surveyors
- Natural Resources Specialists
- Naturalists and Conservationists
- Soil Scientists
- Wetlands Specialists and Wetland Scientists
Meet Your Instructor
Ralph Tiner, M.S., M.P.A., SWS Fellow
Ralph Tiner has more than 40 years of practical experience in wetland delineation and is a nationally recognized authority in the field. He recently retired from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service where he directed wetland mapping in the Northeast United States as part of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s National Wetlands Inventory (NWI). He is a nationally recognized expert on wetland delineation and has been actively involved in improving wetland delineation techniques for decades. In addition, he was compiler and principal author of the Federal Interagency Wetland Delineation Manual, which was published in 1989 and is the standard for identifying and delineating wetlands in New Jersey.
Read More About Ralph Tiner
Ralph has written extensively on the subject of wetlands and is the author of several field guides including: Field Guide to Non-tidal Wetland Identification, Maine Wetlands and Their Boundaries, A Field Guide to Coastal Wetland Plants of the Northeastern United States, and In Search of Swampland, as well as an update of the Wetland Indicators book entitled Wetland Indicators: A Guide to Wetland Formation, Identification, Delineation, Classification, and Mapping. His most recent books are: Tidal Wetlands Primer: An Introduction to Their Ecology, Natural History, Status, and Conservation and Remote Sensing of Wetlands: Applications and Advances (for which he is senior editor and authored several chapters).
In addition to writing about wetlands, he has been teaching wetland identification and delineation courses through the Rutgers Office of Continuing Professional Education Office since the mid-1980s.
Student Reviews
“Good introduction to winter botany, covers terms and ID needed to get started. [Now I will] rely more on keys, different sources to help narrow down ID.”
– Robert Bird, Environmental Specialist
“I learned that tree canopy shape and size differs based upon the leaf type (simple or compound). This can be a helpful additional indicator in the winter when studying the branches of trees in the field to determine the species.”
– Past Participant
“This is one of the most useful wetland vegetation classes I have taken. Ralph is very knowledgeable and is an excellent instructor.”
– Past Participant
Continuing Education Credits
The most recent offering of Identification of Wetland Plants in Winter was approved for the following credits from professional organizations. We will reapply for similar credits the next time the course runs, but we cannot guarantee credit approval for future offerings.
New Jersey
NJ Certified Public Works Managers (CPWM): 5 Technical & 5 Management Contact Hours
NJ Health Officers and Registered Environmental Health Specialists (HO/REHS): Rutgers University, NJAES, Office of Continuing Professional Education has been approved by the New Jersey Department of Health as a provider of NJ Public Health Continuing Education Contact Hours (CEs). Participants who complete this course will be awarded 16.0 CEs.
NJ Landscape Architects: 12 hours
NJ Professional Engineers/Land Surveyors: 12 Continuing Professional Competency (CPC) credits
New York
NY Landscape Architects: 14 hr EA
NY Land Surveyors: 12 hours
NY Professional Engineers: 12 PDHs
National
Society of American Foresters: 14 CFEs
Society of Wetland Scientists Professional Certification Program (SWSPCP): Identification of Wetland Plants in Winter has been pre-approved for 0.8 equivalent semester hours by the SWSPCP as meeting standards for content and instruction toward SWSPCP Professional Certification or SWSPCP Professional Certification Renewal. Approval per course is calculated based upon 15 hours of contact time per credit. Learn more about the Society of Wetland Scientists Professional Certification Program (SWSPCP).
The Wildlife Society: 7.5 CEUs
Required Textbooks
Technology Requirements
Email Requirement
Photo ID Requirement
Cancellations and SubstitutionsProgram Questions? We’re Here to Help!
If you have any questions about Identification of Wetland Plants in Winter, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us.
Program Coordinator: Suzanne Hills
848-932-7234
suzanne.hills@rutgers.edu
Administrative Assistant: Arleth Mendoza
848-932-7764
arleth.mendoza@rutgers.edu
For registration assistance, please contact our Registration Department at 848-932-9271, option 2 or email registration@njaes.rutgers.edu.
