A Field Foray to the Pacific Northwest

In mid-August, GSS staff Mike Knudson, Josh Balsiger, and Kevin Stark traveled to King County, Washington (home of Seattle) for a wetland mapping field trip. They visited wetland sites in five different watersheds with staff from the King County and the Washington Ecology Department, including a Senior Ecologist, Wetland Scientist, and Environmental Scientists. The team was also joined by a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff member from the National Wetland Inventory program for 2 days. Memorable moments from the trip included visiting small estuarine wetlands on Vashon Island, pushing through thick blackberry bushes to access potential wetlands, and confirming the existence of very small wetland features identified with the use of LiDAR (elevation data) and skilled image and GIS data interpretation. The team was also surprised to find that many floodplains that appeared to be wetlands according to imagery and GIS data were not wetland because their streams have become so incised that the floodplains have become “disconnected” (i.e., are no longer flooding), primarily due to human activities.