Idaho land managers and regulators need knowledge on riparian reference sites. Reference sites are ecological controls that can be used to set meaningful management and regulatory goals. Since 1984, the Idaho Conservation Data Center, Boise, ID, has compiled information in a series of interrelated databases on the distribution and condition of riparian, wetland, and terrestrial plant associations in high quality reference sites in Idaho. This report summarizes association-specific and reference area-specific information from our databases and presents a standardized classification of Idaho riparian and wetland plant associations. Each plant association entry includes the current global and state conservation rank, and the plant association's occurrence in reference areas (if any). This is followed by a summary of each reference area, arranged by ecoregional Province and Section. Summary information includes location, management responsibility, site description, and a list of all riparian and wetland associations that occur in the area.

This annotated bibliography contains 1,905 citations from professional journals, symposia, workshops, proceedings, technical reports, and other sources. The intent of this compilation was to: (1) assemble, to the extent possible, all available and accessible publications relating to riparian management within a single source or document; (2) provide managers, field biologists, researchers, and others, a point of access for locating scientific literature relevent to their specific interest; and (3) provide, under one cover, a comprehensive collection of annotated publications that could dessiminate basic information relative to the status of our knowledge.

Idaho land managers and regulators need knowledge on riparian reference sites. Reference sites are ecological controls that can be used to set meaningful management and regulatory goals. Since 1984, the Idaho Conservation Data Center, Boise, ID, has compiled information in a series of interrelated databases on the distribution and condition of riparian, wetland, and terrestrial plant associations in high quality reference sites in Idaho. This report summarizes association-specific and reference area-specific information from our databases and presents a standardized classification of Idaho riparian and wetland plant associations. Each plant association entry includes the current global and state conservation rank, and the plant association's occurrence in reference areas (if any). This is followed by a summary of each reference area, arranged by ecoregional Province and Section. Summary information includes location, management responsibility, site description, and a list of all riparian and wetland associations that occur in the area.

The Clean Water Act (CWA) requires that wetlands be protected from degradation because of their important ecological functions including maintenance of high water quality and provision of fish and wildlife habitat. However, this protection generally does not encompass riparian areasâ€"the lands bordering rivers and lakesâ€"even though they often provide the same functions as wetlands. Growing recognition of the similarities in wetland and riparian area functioning and the differences in their legal protection led the NRC in 1999 to undertake a study of riparian areas, which has culminated in Riparian Areas: Functioning and Strategies for Management. The report is intended to heighten awareness of riparian areas commensurate with their ecological and societal values. The primary conclusion is that, because riparian areas perform a disproportionate number of biological and physical functions on a unit area basis, restoration of riparian functions along America's waterbodies should be a national goal.