Wetland Delineation

Kara Brooks is the Wisconsin DNR Wetland Delineation Program Coordinator. She has more than 10 years of experience in documenting wetlands including delineating tens of thousands of wetlands across the Midwest. She has experience reviewing wetland delineations for controversial and complex wetland sites as a state regulator in Wisconsin and has administered the WDNR Assured Delineator Pilot Program since 2019.

Steve Eggers is a retired senior ecologist following a 42-year career with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers regulatory program involving the Clean Water Act and Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899. He was a member of the National Advisory Team for Wetland Delineation that authored the ten regional supplements to the 1987 Corps of Engineers Wetlands Delineation Manual and was also a member of the National Technical Committee for Wetland Vegetation. Steve is co-author of Wetland Plants and Plant Communities of Minnesota and Wisconsin first published in 1987 and now in its third edition (2015). He has been teaching wetland delineation and wetland plant identification for more than 30 years.

Marissa Merriman is a Regulatory Ecologist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District Regulatory Division, with over 13 years of experience in the federal government and private sector. In her current role she evaluates wetland and stream compensatory mitigation proposals in Minnesota and Wisconsin. She also provides technical support and training for Regulatory program staff and the public regarding mitigation, wetland and waterbody delineation, and Clean Water Act jurisdictional determinations. Marissa holds a B.S. in Forest Management and Ecosystem Restoration from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, and certifications in Wetland Science and Ecological Restoration from the University of Wisconsin and the University of Minnesota.

Tim Miland is an Area Resource Soil Scientist with USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) stationed in Altoona, WI covering the northwestern 22 counties of the state. He’s worked with the agency for nearly 32 years. He spent the first half of his career mapping soils in northern and western Wisconsin, New Mexico and Alaska. In his current position he helps users access and understand soils and soils data. For the past 15 years he has also been heavily involved in wetland delineation for Food Security Act purposes, Wetland Evaluation Potential Screening (WEPS) and wetland restoration for various USDA programs. 

Amber Miller-Adamany is the Professional Education Program Specialist in Graduate & Extended Learning at UWL. She studied biology and English as an undergraduate, and earned her M.S. in Biology at UWL. Her thesis research focused on wetland restoration in the floodplain forest of the Upper Mississippi River. She will be helping to facilitate the online and field portions of the course.

Meredith Thomsen is the Dean of Graduate & Extended Learning, a member of the River Studies Center, and a former Biology Professor at UW-La Crosse. A wetland ecologist specializing in floodplain forest restoration, she lacks experience with wetland delineation, but suspects she is the midwest expert in digging through reed canary grass to find silver maple seedlings. She will be helping to facilitate the online and field portions of the course.

Kevin Traastad is the USDA-NRCS Major Land Resource Area Soil Survey Office Leader for the Driftless and Central Sands areas, based in Onalaska, WI. He has a Bachelor of Science-Agriculture degree in Soil Science from UW-River Falls. He has been working in the field for 22 years. From 2005–2009 he conducted wetland identifications and delineations in southeastern Wisconsin.

Allison Willman is a wetland expert for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Her current role specializes in providing wetland technical expertise to the DNR’s waterways program, wetland delineation reviews and trainings, and botanical trainings. Previously, she served as a Wetland Identification Specialist for the DNR and participated in a research study on wetland restorations. Prior to the Wisconsin DNR, she graduated with a Soils and Land Management degree from UW-Stevens Point and spent several years working in the private sector, along with completing a wetland internship with the Lake County Stormwater Management Commission.

Jeremy Xiegler is an Area Resource Soil Scientist with the USDA-NRCS in Juneau, WI. He has worked as a Soil Scientist with the NRCS for 21 years in Wyoming, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Jeremy works on wetland determinations for the NRCS and helps teach hydric soils classes in the state for the NRCS.