Vegetation - Suisun Marsh - Change 1999 to 2003 [ds164]

The Suisun Marsh is one of the largest contiguous brackish marshes remaining in the United States. In 1977 the Suisun Marsh Preservation Act was legislated and required that the Suisun Marsh be managed for its wildlife resources. As part of the monitoring program in the Plan of Protection, a Triennial Vegetation Survey was developed to document the overall vegetation composition of the marsh and to monitor Salt Marsh Harvest Marsh (SMHM) habitat by the use of aerial photography in combination with ground verification. However, there were some concerns about the methodology used and the lack of useful maps from the 1988, 1991, and 1994 surveys. In 1996, an interagency technical committee was convened to review the current survey methodology and recommended a more detailed monitoring system for vegetation changes within the marsh. Consequently, in July 1997 the committee agreed to implement a new survey methodology for the 1998 vegetation survey. The first survey was complete in 1999 (see ds160). The datasets containing the results of the second year of the survey and the change analysis are reported in ds161 and ds163. The current dataset describes the vegetation in June 2003 and change since June 1999.