Lil crab

Soil salinity and transducer monitoring today. Basically, we draw up water from 15, 30 and 45cm underground and use a small visual device to determine the salinity. Here's the interesting part:

Recently, we had some impressive water levels. the bay washed pretty deep into the freshwater marsh, apparently salinifying it pretty well. All the cattail, poison ivy, and ferns were dying. Today, our transducers showed that in fact, the water levels WERE really high, even far back into the marsh. Our water testing showed significantly higher salinity than previous times.

In short, our freshwater marsh is turning into a saltwater one (this is good, as that's our goal in managing this piece of property). It's really cool to see such a dramatic change in the course of a couple weeks.

We also took a walk around a saltwater marsh (with lots of deep holes that are easy to fall into... which we did several times. Usually a whole leg in, but recoverable. wearing waders, this wasn't a problem). The marsh is dominated by spartina, a salt-tolerant grass, and has some sedges and rushes (Carex and Juncus) a bit further from the water. We think this is what our freshwater marsh will eventually look like. It'll be quite different, that's for sure.

Today, a baby crab picture. Or another crab