1. Background
The Columbia White Tail Deer (CWTD) used to thrive in the Initial Condition Figure 1. IPCC Sea Level
Willamette Valley, but are now restricted to an 18 mile extent on
Prediction Scenarios used
the lower Columbia. Currently viable habitat exists on the JBH
by SLAMM. We chose A1B
mainland and supports 150-200 deer.
and 1.5 meter rise.
The predominate threat to the populations of CWTD on the Julia
Butler Hansen (JBH) refuge is the potential for flooding. The land
has been diked and protected by levees that are subject to soil
erosion and structural failure, and are monitored closely by the Swamp
Inland Fresh Marsh Table 1. IPCC Scenario A1B Tabular Results
refuge. Tidal Fresh Marsh
Trans. Salt Marsh
Reg. Flooded Marsh
Research Question: Will rising sea levels affect the endangered Estuarine Beach
CWTD habitat in the JBH Wildlife Refuge? Tidal Flat
Riverine Tidal
Estuarine Open Water
Irreg. Flooded Marsh
Inland Shore
Tidal Swamp
IPCC Scenario A1B
Swamp
Inland Fresh Marsh
Table 2. Fixed Sea Level Rise 1.5 m Tabular Results
Tidal Fresh Marsh
Trans. Salt Marsh
Reg. Flooded Marsh
Estuarine Beach
Tidal Flat
Riverine Tidal
Estuarine Open Water
Map 1. Study area is delimited from Wallace Island River Irreg. Flooded Marsh
Mile 50 downstream to Karlson Island River Mile 32. JBH Inland Shore
Tidal Swamp
Refuge land includes five islands and a section of
Washington mainland.
SLAMM Model Fixed Rise 1.5
The SLAMM model assumes four processes affect
wetlands: inundation, erosion, overwash, saturation
(Clough 2009). Inundation and erosion have the
greatest effect on our study area. SLAMM tracks land
classification change and land area lost to open water.
Swamp
References
Inland Fresh Marsh
Data input: Site Specification file, DEM, NWI Classes, Tidal Fresh Marsh
Trans. Salt Marsh
This project was completed using all Open Source software: SLAMM 6.0 beta,
Slope Reg. Flooded Marsh Quantum GIS 1.4.0, Inkscape and GIMP.
Data output: ASCII file with updated NWI Classes Estuarine Beach
Tidal Flat Clough, J.S. "SLAMM 6 beta Official Release." Warren Pinnacle Consulting.
Riverine Tidal
Warren Pinnacle, December 1, 2009. Web. February 16, 2010. < http://
Estuarine Open Water
Conclusion: There is minimal change in the land Irreg. Flooded Marsh warrenpinnacle.com/prof/SLAMM6/SLAMM_6_Release_Notes.pdf>.
Inland Shore
classification types. This is great news for the CWT Tidal Swamp
Deer habitat. Poster Analysis and Design by:
0 1000 2000 Meters lbross@pdx.edu, stolnack@pdx.edu & hvandyke@pdx.edu Fall 2009
