About the Project

In collaboration with local reserve staff, technical advisors, and local and national partners, this project brought together local and historical knowledge to comprehensively map past and present estuarine habitat across all 30 NERRs. Project findings revealed regional differences in how estuaries have changed over time and suggest that multiple mapping methods complement each other and should be integrated to provide a more accurate understanding of estuaries—past, present and future. This project has strengthened strategic planning for estuarine habitat conservation and restoration at both national and local scales in the face of sea level rise and lake-level change.

About the Resource

Project Lead Kerstin Wasson (Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve) gives an introduction to "Tracking Estuary Change: Informing Conservation Decision Making through Historical and Elevation-based Mapping," a collaborative research project funded in 2020 by the NERRS Science Collaborative. The presentation was given at a virtual project workshop in October 2021.