The tidal wetlands management model in Virginia is the product of a twenty-five year evolutionary blend of legislative policy generation, state agency overview and development of guidelines, along with local government implementation. Interest in wetlands at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), both from scientific and management perspectives, began in the mid 1960's. This interest paralleled the increased emphasis on environmental issues in the United States in general, and with an ongoing concern for the sustainability of commercially important seafood resources in particular in Virginia. Virginia concerns resulted in the formation in 1966 by resolution of the General Assembly of a special Marine Resource Study Commission . In 1967, the Study Commission recommended a special study of the marshes and tidal wetlands of Virginia. In 1968, the Legislature directed VIMS to conduct such a study. In December, 1969, the Wetlands Research Section at VIMS published Coastal Wetlands of Virginia, Interim Report No. 1.
 

This document became the basis for public hearings, drafting of the Wetlands Act and additional research during the years 1970 through 1972. In 1972, VIMS published Tidal Datum Planes and Tidal Boundaries and Their Use as Legal Boundaries and Coastal Wetlands of Virginia, Interim Report No. 2. Both of these documents were used in developing the legal definition of tidal wetlands in the Virginia Wetlands Act of 1972, which became effective July 1, 1972.
 

With implementation of the Wetlands Act and the formation of the first wetland boards (made up of lay appointees from each locality which adopted the Wetlands Act) VIMS initiated training and education workshops for board members, local staff and state agency personnel, as well as interested federal resource managers. VIMS also produced a management guide for state and local regulatory personnel entitled, Local management of Wetlands-Environmental Considerations. At the same time, VIMS wetlands personnel began the mandated tidal wetlands inventory activity and published the first of the series of county and city wetland inventories.
 

With the implementation of the new law by local boards made up of lay people, VIMS wetlands scientists were increasingly called on to supply scientific and technical advice within the decision-making process,  as VIMS had done for many years in support of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC).  VMRC regulates commercial and recreational fisheries, and subaqueous bottom, and reviews local wetlands board decisions.  Thus assessments of environmental impact and recommendations to minimize wetlands and subaqueous losses involved with permit applications became routine actions.
 

Continuing its mandated activities, the Wetlands Group (working cooperatively with the VMRC) published the Coastal Wetlands of Virginia, Interim Report No. 3, Guidelines for Activities Affecting Virginia Wetlands. This document was later promulgated by the VMRC and published as the Wetlands Guidelines for the Commonwealth. In this document VIMS "...identified wetlands by type..." and described the "consequences of use" of the wetlands, both activities being mandated in the Act.
 

VIMS wetlands personnel continue to function as scientific and technical advisors to the Legislature, state agencies and local wetlands boards. The unique aspect of the Virginia wetlands management model is the provision, on a day to day basis, of scientific input and environmental guidance at all three levels of government by an independent, multi-disciplinary, academic institution rather than the more commonly utilized executive model. The Virginia Institute of Marine Science of the College of William and Mary is mandated by state code to provide the basic research, educational programs and technical support necessary to buttress the Commonwealth's tidal wetland regulatory effort, as well as many of its other environmental programs.
 

The utilization of an independent technical support group, from a major academic institution, promotes basic research addressing management questions, allows analysis and advice to local managers to be based on a regional perspective and minimizes the risk of scientific input being used to support a priori decisions rather than being part of the decision-making process. The independent academic institution model also allows a multi-disciplinary approach to be utilized to address both large, highly complex permit applications and geographically broad planning and resource definition efforts. Independent scientific advice, based on original research and review of the existing knowledge base, can support policy development as well as single permit decisions and all actions connected to the management of the resource. The model also facilitates the immediate conduct of research projects within relatively short time frames when answers to specific questions are needed to fill perceived gaps within the formal decision-making process.
 

In Virginia, the role of science in policy development and decision-making has been documented through the historical and continuing activities listed below:
 

• Conducting basic research in support of the development of wetlands policy and legislation and direct scientific input in the legislative process;

 
• Generation of legal definitions for natural resources;

 
• Preparation of guidelines pursuant to protective legislation;

 
• Evolution of barrier island and tidal wetland compensatory mitigation policies;

 
• Inventorying of the state's tidal wetland resource;

 
• Database management and monitoring of the tidal wetland regulatory program;

 
• Impact assessment for individual permit decisions;

 
• Impact assessment for legal/enforcement proceedings;

 
• Development of an educational curriculum for local and state wetland managers;

 
• Development and presentation of manager-specific workshops, seminars, educational videos and self-taught courses;

• Preparation and distribution of technical reports, handbooks and other literature designed to update resource managers within the state;

 
• Monitoring of permitted projects for compliance, successful tidal wetland restoration, etc.; and

• Development of state wetland banking guidelines.