Maryann M. McGraw

Maryann M. McGraw is a leader in New Mexico wetland management. As the Wetlands Program Coordinator at the New Mexico Environment Department Surface Water Quality Bureau, she initiated the state’s Wetlands Program in 2003, and continues to provide vision and guide development of the program to reflect the crucial role of wetlands and riparian areas in the arid west.  The Wetland Program Plan for New Mexico that she developed in 2010, and updated in 2012, 2015, and 2017, uses a multiphase comprehensive approach that includes the timely engagement of partners throughout the state in the development of Wetlands Action Plans and maintaining the New Mexico Wetlands Roundtable that meets four times a year. She initiated comprehensive wetland mapping and classification for the fifth largest state.  Her recent projects include the development of rapid assessment methods for montane and lowland riverine wetlands, confined valleys, and playas of the Southern High Plains, which informs the development of state wetlands water quality standards and antidegradation policies. These standards protect the most vulnerable and threatened types of wetlands, including isolated wetlands that are critically linked economically, ecologically, and culturally to water quality in the state. She has served on the Association of State Wetland Managers Board of Directors and, in 2007, the steering committee to develop a Strategic Plan for the EPA National Wetlands Program. She has also taught landscape ecology and restoration classes at Santa Fe Community College, and volunteers with Kitchen Angels to provided weekly food deliveries for homebound clients since 1996.