Vegetation - Suisun Marsh - 1999 [ds160]

The Suisun Marsh is one of the largest contiguous brackish marshes remaining in the United States covering over 69,000 acres of tidal and seasonally managed wetland. In 1977 the Suisun 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 (reported herein).