National 4-H GIS GPS Leadership Team Collaborates with US Fish & Wildlife Service in Mapping San Diego Refuge

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Ranger Lisa Cox discusses invasive plant species with National 4-H GIS Team member

Just outside of San Diego at the San Diego Bay National Wildlife Refuge - South Bay, the National 4-H GIS Leadership team embarked on its annual Community Service Learning Project with the US Fish & Wildlife Service. We had five goals: to mark the route for a pedestrian trail and observation areas around the edge of the salt marsh, to measure patches of barren earth that will need to restored, to document the presence of both native and invasive plants in the area, and then to incorporate all of this data into maps of the area useful to the US Fish & Wildlife Service.

The Team gathers in San Diego each summer to attend the ESRI International GIS Education Conference. The Community service learning project provides an opportunity to collaborate with the US Fish & Wildlife Service and to build geospatial and work skills. Kurt Roblek, US Fish & Wildlife Service, noted the impact geospatial technology has on their work. “It is profound what technology makes possible, and how easily and quickly the youth grasp its potential.” Tony McKinney, US Fish & Wildlife Service, who coordinates the project with 4-H each year, said in closing “It’s a pleasure and great value to work with the 4-H Team. We hope to continue this relationship for years to come.”

Awareness of the importance of this Project was heightened when the Team learned how endangered salt marshes and the life forms they support are. Ninety nine percent of the wetlands in California have been lost, and closer to 99.9% of the salt marshes in CA have been lost.

While this area was a salt water marsh in its natural state, it has been managed as a series of commercial salt ponds for about 100 years. The ponds are of successively higher elevation, created by a series of levees with one-way gates or flaps that allow, when the water in an outer pond reaches a certain level, the water to flow into the next pond. As the water moves into the next pond, it creates successively higher levels of salinity in the water. The salt is then harvested and used in water softeners, tanning hides, and for other nonfood uses. In the 1970's the area became a National Wildlife Refuge, but efforts to restore it are fairly recent.

Tony McKinney of U.S. Fish & Wildlife discusses possible trail routes with National 4-H GIS Team member

As salt ponds, the floor of the marsh was fairly flat. Construction crews are currently dredging the ponds to create channels. Once the dredging is complete and the channels are in place, the levees can be breached to allow normal tide action to replenish the salt marsh. Construction of the trail is expected to take place this fall, with the trail finished by the end of winter.

The new trail is proposed to be approximately 2100 feet along a section of the 22 mile Bayside Trail bike path loop. Because of the high level of bike traffic and the speed many cyclists are traveling, it isn't safe for pedestrians and birdwatchers to stop along the bike trail. The 3 observation decks and the trails connecting them will allow for safe "gawking" and walking.

The National 4-H GIS Leadership Team, with 19 youth and adult members from 7 states, formed four teams to map the Refuge area where the trail is planned. One team took responsibility for mapping potential trail routes. Connecting the three observation decks and planned to encourage bird watching, the trail will meet ADA standards for accessibility. A second team mapped bare earth. Knowing where and how much of the area is bare earth is useful in determining trail placement and decisions about replanting the area with native plant species. The remaining two teams mapped plant life: one the desirable native plants of a salt water marsh, and the second mapped the presence of exotic and invasive plants. Most of the native plants were recognizable by their telltale "greenness" in mid-summer, when many invasives have turned brown due to minimal rainfall. A multiyear effort will be put in place to remove the invasive plants and keep their seeds embedded in the earth from sprouting. Native plants to anchor the shoreline and support salt water marsh wildlife will added to replace the invasives.

National 4-H GIS Team members from Kansas discuss the new app with Kurt Daradics of CitySourced

After the morning in the field, the Team returned to the Tijuana Estuary Visitor Center to work with their data and create maps of the area. The Team was beta testing a new app developed by CitySourced for smart phones that would allow them to plot land features (e.g., bare earth, certain plant species) and connect this data with a photo, time stamp and location data. The data reports were submitted to CitySourced server. Then the information was downloaded from CitySourced in spreadsheet format. The Team needed to work out issues of transforming data from GPS exchange files to shape files.

There were some areas in the Refuge where it was difficult to map due to the presence of endangered or fragile plants; the Team needed to offset their tracks and take this into account in their mapping. The Team also took the opportunity to edit and correct minor problems with their observation data. The maps generated required the Team to apply their symbology and cartography skills. These maps will be showcased in the 4-H Expo exhibit at the ESRI Education Conference in San Diego July 9, 2011

National 4-H GIS Team members work with the data they collected from the Refuge to create maps

This is the third year the National 4-H GIS Leadership Team has collaborated with the US Fish & Wildlife Service in the San Diego area. In the first year, the Team helped map levees that will protect communities from higher water levels due to climate change. Last year the Team mapped invasive species in the Tijuana Slough area of the Refuge.

For more information on the South Bay San Diego Salt Marsh Restoration Project: http://www.fws.gov/sandiegorefuges/Western%20Salt%20Ponds%20Restoration%20Project3.html

For more information on the National 4-H GIS Leadership Team or the Team’s collaboration with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, contact Jim Kahler, jkahler@nifa.usda.gov.