| Patuxent Science Meeting 2006 Poster Abstract |
| |
Vegetation monitoring at the reconstructed Anacostia River Fringe Wetlands |
| | Krafft C, Hammerschlag RS, Hill P (DC Dept. of Health) |
| | In August 2003 planting was completed at the newly-reconstructed 15-acre River Fringe |
| | wetlands along the mainstem of the Anacostia River in Washington, DC. This project is the |
| | third in a series of freshwater tidal wetland reconstructions on the Anacostia River designed and |
| | implemented by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE) on lands owned by the National Park |
| | Service (NPS). The first was Kenilworth Marsh, planted in 1993; the second was Kingman |
| | Marsh, planted in 2000. Kenilworth and Kingman were both constructed in low-energy |
| | backwaters of the Anacostia, unlike the River Fringe, which was constructed on the high-energy |
| | mainstem, and therefore required protection from sheet piling during the establishment phase. |
| | As the third in a series, the River Fringe reconstruction benefited from lessons learned at the |
| | prior reconstructions, incorporating a streamlined planting list consisting of seven native plant |
| | species, and an extensive system of fencing and flagging to prevent the extensive herbivory by |
| | resident Canada geese instrumental in the decimation of vegetation at the Kingman Marsh site. |
| | USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center has participated in the monitoring of all three of the |
| | reconstruction sites, with a variety of partners including NPS, COE, University of Maryland, and |
| | DC Department of Health (which designed the monitoring protocol for the River Fringe wetlands). |
| | Preliminary analyses of the monitoring data show that, two years post-reconstruction, |
| | vegetation at the River Fringe wetlands has established well, with total vegetative cover |
| | averaging 94 ± 6 % in 2005, and species richness averaging 7 ± 1 species observed per 2 m2 |
| | plot. Over eighty plant species were observed in the River Fringe in 2005, indicating that the |
| | River Fringe wetlands continue to provide a habitat rich in a wide variety of plant species. Of the |
| | top ten species in terms of plant cover observed during the course of the project to date, six |
| | were planted, either during the initial planting, or, in the case of Zizania aquatica (wild rice), |
| | during subsequent plantings by the Anacostia Watershed Society. Lythrum salicaria (purple |
| | loosestrife), also among the top ten, is being watched as a potentially problematic non-native |
| | invasive. Future analyses will compare River Fringe plant data with Kingman data from |
| | Friday, September 22, 2006 |