Because some copyright holders only gave permission to use their work in paper format, this document cannot be reproduced electronically. For a printed copy, contact the Priority Habitat and Species at:

Bibliography Development

The first step in developing management recommendations for a priority habitat or species is to conduct an extensive literature search on the subject. To understand the breadth of information available the Washington State Library ran a search through 20 bibliographic databases on the term wetland(s) and some of its synonyms (lacustrine, palustrine, marsh(es), bog(s), pond(s), swamp(s)) for the years 1993-1997. This search produced over 60,000 "hits", which was more than could logistically be reviewed and no doubt contained thousands of articles not relevant to developing management recommendations for Washington's wetlands. The search was narrowed by putting in additional terms, such as fish, wildlife, function(s), buffer(s), management, watershed, planning, and water. This produced an output of approximately 9,000 records. The titles of these documents were examined to determine which seemed relevant and eventually citations for about 300 articles were received.

The original search through the State Library was restricted to the last 5 years for several reasons. First, going back any further would have made the number of titles to be examined unworkable. Second, other information resources also would be used, such as those described below. Third, it was assumed that any major works written prior to 1993 would be referenced in the newer works.

The State Library was not the only source used for obtaining literature. The Fish and Wildlife Reference Service in Bethesda, Maryland, ran a search on the term wetland(s) with no restriction on year. This produced a list of 709 citations. Additional resources included the Riparian Communities Bibliography from the USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center database available on the internet, as well as other internet resources, WDFW's Species-Habitat project database of approximately 10,000 articles, the Washington Department of Ecology publications office, and personal libraries of agency staff.

A critical component in constructing this bibliography was deciding which documents should be included. Experience in writing and editing other PHS management recommendations provided some insight into the types of articles needed. Also the primary sections, described on page 1, served as a guide in selecting literature.

In the "Fish and Wildlife Use" section, a list of species that use wetlands was developed by reviewing several documents that provide such information (Thomas 1979, Wydoski and Whitney 1979, Brown 1985, Andelman and Stock 1994; record numbers 571, 632, 89, and 17, in this document, respectively). Then a sample of obligate or facultative wetland species that were well represented in the literature was selected from each major taxa. Often these also were priority species. A similar process occurred in the "Impacts of Land Use" section. This is not to say that an important species or impact that is not well represented in the literature will not be discussed in the management recommendations document. If it is important it will be discussed under the proviso that there has been little published on the topic.

The result of all this is the following bibliography of 641 articles relevant to the development of management recommendations for wetlands. Obviously, there are thousands of additional articles that could be referenced here. As writing of the actual recommendations document proceeds, additional literature certainly will be included. In addition, the management recommendations document will be developed with the assistance of a technical review committee. There will also be an internal review by WDFW agency staff and comments will be solicited from state and federal agencies; county, city, and tribal governments; consulting firms; industry representatives; and other resource experts.

Document Structure

Section I of this document is the bibliography. The citations are listed alphabetically by author and numbered consecutively. Citations are written using the Journal of Wildlife Management format. Each reference contains 3 or 4 parts. First is the article's reference number and citation. The second part is a summary of the article. This may be the author's actual abstract, a portion of an executive summary, or an annotation I wrote specifically for this bibliography. If the information supplied in this section is something I wrote, then it appears in brackets. If there are no brackets, then the information is verbatim from the actual article. The third section is a statement authorizing permission to use the verbatim information. This statement only appears if the summary was copyrighted. The fourth section is a list of the major PHS headings that correspond to the information presented in the article.

Section II of the document is a list of the record numbers for each reference organized by the PHS headings. This is based on how the information supplied in the citation would likely be used in a PHS management recommendations document on wetlands.

Because some copyright holders only gave permission to use their work in paper format, this document cannot be reproduced electronically. The primary purpose of this bibliography is to assist in the development of a management recommendations document for wetlands. When complete, the management recommendations document will be widely available in paper format and on the WDFW website.