Skip to content

American Fisheries Society Family of Websites:

Fisheries.org

American Fisheries Society
Family of Websites

Journals

Read our five journals and Fisheries magazine

Gray Literature Database

Find thousands of unpublished agency reports and other information

Annual Meeting

Join us in Honolulu in 2024

Divisions, Chapters, Sections

Find an AFS Unit near you or in your area of specialty

Climate Change and Fisheries

Learn how to communicate the effects of climate change on fisheries

Hutton Junior Fisheries Biology Program

Summer internships for high school students

Fisheries Community

Coming soon!

Center for Fisheries Technology and Collaboration

Find fisheries science products and services

Center for Technology and Collaboration

Quick answers to common questions

Other Resources
  • Standard Methods for Sampling North American Freshwater Fish Website

  • Rotenone Stewardship Program Information Site

  • Fishionary: A blog about fish words! 
Latest News
Give to Fisheries on Giving Tuesday New Journal Design
Donate
Login
Logout
  • Who We Are
  • MEMBERSHIP
  • POLICY
  • NEWS
  • EVENTS
  • JOBS
  • PUBLICATIONS
  • Professional Development
  • Engagement

Who We Are

Governance

Learn how AFS is structured

Divisions, Sections, Chapters

Find a community in your local
area or in your expertise

Committees

Get engaged and volunteer

Awards & Recognition

Nominate your heroes

Diversity

Learn more about our DEIJA efforts

AFS Celebrates 150+ Years

Explore our history

AFS Fisheries Partnerships

Meet our global partners

Meet the Staff

Dedicated to serving our members

Contact Us

Quick answers to common questions

Support AFS

Discover how you can support critical AFS programs

What Are Fisheries?

Explore fisheries professions

Membership

Learn about membership benefits and member types

Member Directory

Find your colleagues

Types of Membership

For all stages of your career                   

Give the Gift
of Membership

Invest in an aspiring fisheries
professional’s future

Who Are Our Members

From students to 50-year Golden Members

My Account

Log in to access member benefits or renew

Join/Renew

It’s Quick and Easy

Organizational Membership

Become a Strategic Partner!

POLICY

Recovering America’s
Wildlife Act

Critical funding for state conservation programs

Climate Change

Communicate the impacts
of climate change on fisheries

Magnuson-Stevens Act

Ensuring sustainability of marine fisheries

Waters of the US

News about Clean Water Act
jurisdiction

Water Quality

Healthy fisheries
require healthy waters                    

Pebble Mine

Protecting Bristol Bay salmon fisheries

National Fish
Habitat Partnership

Addressing fish habitat regionally

Infrastructure

Funding impacts on fish habitat

Aquaculture

Providing food security for the future

Future of the Nation’s
Aquatic Resources

Priorities for US fisheries policies

Recent Policy Statements

Official policy statements of AFS

Recent Policy Letters

Comments on policy,
legislation, and regulations

Advocacy Guidelines

For Units and members

Science Guidelines

Practicing science appropriately

Briefings

Congressional briefings with our partners

Resolutions

Member-approved resolutions
on policy

News

Announcements

Official AFS news

Annual Meeting

News from the meeting

Members in the News

Awards and interviews

Policy News

Round-up of all policy news

Newsletter

Bi-weekly newsletter for members and partners

Press Releases

News media releases

Events

Annual Meeting

Honolulu 2024

Future Annual Meetings

Where we are heading

Past Annual Meetings

Where we’ve been

World Fisheries Congress 2024

Seattle, Washington

Other Past Events

Past special events

Fisheries Events Calendar

Events around the world

Add Your Event Listing

Submit your calendar item

Jobs

Career Help from AFS

Compilation of job listing boards

Other Career Tips

Career info for members

Find a Job

Listings from all over North America

Post a Job

Submit your job opening

Publications

AFS Journals Program

More than 150 years of excellence

AFS Books Program

Publish with AFS

Submit Journal Article

Reach the right audience for your research

Fisheries Magazine

Monthly membership magazine

Writing Tools

Guides for authors and other resources

Bookstore

Shop more than 180 titles

Journal Online Access

Log in to access journal articles

Gray Literature Database

Thousands of unpublished agency reports and research

Professional Development

Continuing Education

Gain skills and enhance your career

Professional Certification

Official recognition of your expertise

Hutton Junior Fisheries
Biology Program

Summer high school
internship program

Leadership Opportunities

Hone your leadership skills, volunteer today!

Webinars

Check out upcoming sessions or browse our library

More Online Resources

Practical resources for fisheries professionals

Engagement

Support AFS

Discover how you can support critical AFS programs

Strategic Partners

See how your organization can partner with AFS

Shop AFS

Check out the latest AFS merch here

Webinar on February 27: Waters of the US (WOTUS) – What You Need to Know about the Rule and How to Take Action

  • February 11, 2019
  • Webinars, WOTUS
  • Home
  • Webinar on February 27: Waters of the US (WOTUS) - What You Need to Know about the Rule and How to Take Action

February 27, 2019, 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. EST

Efforts by the Trump administration are underway to roll back Clean Water Act protections for our nation’s streams and wetlands. The newly proposed rule to revise the definition of waters of the United States (WOTUS) aims to exclude many wetlands and headwater streams that are critical to fish, fisheries, and ecosystem services.  In 2015, the EPA finalized a WOTUS rule that based Clean Water Act protections on the degree of connectivity between navigable waters, wetlands, and headwater streams. The 2015 rule was informed by the best scientific information available, but the new WOTUS rule proposes to eliminate protections for all ephemeral streams and wetlands that do not have a surface connection to, or touch, navigable waters, and opens the door to removing protections for intermittent streams. Activities such as mining, industry, and development could move forward in these waters without federal safeguards, thereby having far-reaching implications for fish, wildlife, and ecosystem functioning, as well as economies dependent on those systems.

Join us for an informative and timely webinar to learn more about the proposed WOTUS rule, the science that contradicts it, and how to submit an effective regulatory comment.

A 60-day public comment period on the proposed rule will commence upon publication in the Federal Register. We encourage AFS members to submit formal comments on the rule to highlight proposed impacts on a state-by-state basis. Visit the AFS website for more information.

PRESENTERS

Gillian Davies will discuss the differences between existing regulations (the 2015 Clean Water Rule and pre-2015 regulations and guidance) and the proposed WOTUS rule revision.  Her presentation will outline the major proposed changes to federal regulation of waters, including the scope of the proposed rule, proposed expansion of exclusions from regulation, changes in how “adjacency” is defined, and the proposed relationship between federal and state regulations. Her presentation will also give a snapshot of the jurisdictions where the 2015 Clean Water Rule is in effect.

Dr. Mažeika Sullivan will explain how the proposed rule fails to align with the original intent of the Clean Water Act to “to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation’s waters” and will explain the many ways the rule is inconsistent with current science. He will highlight how the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are improperly interpreting the theoretical model developed by the EPA Science Advisory Board to illustrate how gradients in connectivity might be used to evaluate downstream impacts of changes to streams and wetlands to eliminate protections for these waters.

Dr. Susan Colvin will discuss a compelling new AFS paper, “Headwater Streams and Wetlands are Critical for Sustaining Fish, Fisheries, and Ecosystems.” The paper details how the loss of Clean Water Act protections for headwaters would result in a loss of ecosystem services, increase the threat to imperiled species, affect commercial and recreational fisheries, and impact fisheries of cultural value to Native Americans and the recreating public.

Drue Banta Winters, AFS Policy Director, will walk participants through the process of submitting an effective regulatory comment and how to broadly communicate the need to protect waters with a physical, chemical, and biological connection to navigable waters through a variety of channels.

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS

Gillian T. Davies, PWS is a registered Soil Scientist (SSSSNE), Sr. Ecological Scientist/Associate, BSC Group, and Visiting Scholar, Global Development & Environment Institute at Tufts University. Davies currently chairs the Society of Wetland Scientists (SWS) Public Policy and Regulation Section WOTUS committee, following a three-year term on the SWS Executive Board, during which she served as the 2016-2017 President of the Society. As a consultant, she provides a broad range of ecological services (e.g., ecological climate resiliency; wetland restoration and creation; federal, state, and local permitting; peer review; environmental monitoring; expert witness testimony), and manages projects, focusing on providing innovative solutions that often incorporate the latest research on wetlands and climate change.  Davies holds a Masters of Environmental Studies degree from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a Bachelor of Arts from Williams College.

Dr. Mažeika Sullivan is an Associate Professor in the School of Environment and Natural Resources at The Ohio State University (OSU) and the Director of the Ramsar-designated Schiermeier Olentangy River Wetland Research Park. He received a B.A. in anthropology from Dartmouth College, and earned his M.S. in biology and Ph.D. in natural resources from the University of Vermont. Subsequently, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Idaho before joining the OSU faculty in 2008. Sullivan’s research focuses on water quality and aquatic ecosystems, where his work integrates community and ecosystem ecology, fluvial geomorphology, and biogeochemistry. He also served as a member of the EPA Scientific Advisory Board “Connectivity of Streams and Wetlands to Downstream Waters” Panel (2013-2014), is a lead author of the AFS paper “Headwater Streams and Wetlands are Critical for Sustaining Fish, Fisheries and Ecosystem Services,” and is an active member of the Society for Freshwater Science, the American Fisheries Society, and the Ecological Society of America.

Dr. Susan Colvin is an Assistant Professor of Sustainable Fisheries at Unity College in Maine. She is the lead author of the AFS paper “Headwater Streams and Wetlands are Critical for Sustaining Fish, Fisheries and Ecosystem Services.” Her research focuses on studying fishes across aquatic ecosystems with emphasis on assemblage changes along gradients of stream size, type, measures of heterogeneity, and anthropogenic influence. Colvin holds a Masters in fisheries from Oregon State University and Ph.D. in biological sciences from Auburn University.

Drue Banta Winters is the AFS Policy Director where she leads the organization’s policy advocacy efforts through thoughtful engagement with decision makers on issues that impact aquatic resources. AFS capitalizes on the expertise of its members to influence policy outcomes to benefit aquatic resources by sharing management knowledge and the best available science with decision makers. Winters is a seasoned policy and strategic communications advisor with special expertise in translating and communicating complex, scientific information in ways that are understandable to the general public.  She graduated from Louisiana State University with a B.A. in political science and a J.D. from the LSU Paul M. Hebert Law School.

The webinar will be recorded and available to AFS members online.

Register Now

  • Recent News

    • American Lobster and Jonah Crab Populations inside and outside the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, USA November 20, 2023
    • Stray Compositions of Hatchery-origin Chinook Salmon and Steelhead in Natural Spawning Populations of the Upper Columbia Watershed November 20, 2023
    • Give to Fisheries on Giving Tuesday November 20, 2023
    • Turning Class Field Trips into Long-Term Research: A Great Idea with a Few Pitfalls November 18, 2023
    • A Historical Record of Sawfish in the Southern Gulf of Mexico: Evidence of Diversity Loss Using Old Photos November 18, 2023
  • About

    The American Fisheries Society is 501c Non-Profit Society

     

    Donate Now

    Quick Links

    • ABOUT
    • POLICY
    • EVENTS
    • PUBLICATIONS
    • MEMBERSHIP
    • NEWS
    • JOBS
    • ABOUT
    • POLICY
    • EVENTS
    • PUBLICATIONS
    • MEMBERSHIP
    • NEWS
    • JOBS

    Contact

    • 425 Barlow Place
      Bethesda, MD 20814
    • (301) 897-8616
    Facebook-f Twitter Instagram Linkedin-in Vimeo-v
    Copyright © 2023 American Fisheries Society | Privacy Policy