Reecer Creek Photo Documentation
Document Type
Oral Presentation
Event Website
https://source2022.sched.com/
Start Date
19-5-2022
End Date
19-5-2022
Keywords
Photography, Ecosystems, Environment, Sustainability
Abstract
We started this project by asking the question of "How has Reecer Creek changed over time?". We decided to answer this question through Photo Documentation. Our experiment was part of our high school class's experiments to determine exactly how the Reecer Creek Floodplain Restoration Project, Ellensburg, WA has succeeded or failed to prompt ecological recovery through the years. We built our conclusions off of previous data from the same experiment, completed in 2011 and 2016 by our previous classmates in years beforehand. We went into the experiment looking for differences in vegetation, water levels, and creek water flow. To collect our data, we used gps pinpoints and previous data to find picture locations and capture new images. We used the same locations and procedure as previous groups to achieve the closest comparisons. After data was collected, we overlaid previous images on new pictures as close as possible to better see key differences between past and present. From our analysis, we determined that there were significant changes in vegetation area, wetland development, and introduced plant growth. Our results demonstrate the success of the Reecer Creek Floodplain Restoration Project in achieving regrowth and land reclamation. Besides our data, we also used assumptions based on the inaccessibility of certain areas due to plant growth to make these conclusions. These findings confirm the conclusions of our seniors who performed this experiment previously, who also found that plant growth in Reecer Creek is thriving after a secondary succession event. This experiment is repeatable and can be conducted in the future in order to determine further changes in the floodplain.
Recommended Citation
Perez, Chase and Quinn, Daniel, "Reecer Creek Photo Documentation" (2022). Symposium Of University Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE). 84.
https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/source/2022/COTS/84
Additional Mentoring Department
Community Partnership with Ellensburg High School
Reecer Creek Photo Documentation
We started this project by asking the question of "How has Reecer Creek changed over time?". We decided to answer this question through Photo Documentation. Our experiment was part of our high school class's experiments to determine exactly how the Reecer Creek Floodplain Restoration Project, Ellensburg, WA has succeeded or failed to prompt ecological recovery through the years. We built our conclusions off of previous data from the same experiment, completed in 2011 and 2016 by our previous classmates in years beforehand. We went into the experiment looking for differences in vegetation, water levels, and creek water flow. To collect our data, we used gps pinpoints and previous data to find picture locations and capture new images. We used the same locations and procedure as previous groups to achieve the closest comparisons. After data was collected, we overlaid previous images on new pictures as close as possible to better see key differences between past and present. From our analysis, we determined that there were significant changes in vegetation area, wetland development, and introduced plant growth. Our results demonstrate the success of the Reecer Creek Floodplain Restoration Project in achieving regrowth and land reclamation. Besides our data, we also used assumptions based on the inaccessibility of certain areas due to plant growth to make these conclusions. These findings confirm the conclusions of our seniors who performed this experiment previously, who also found that plant growth in Reecer Creek is thriving after a secondary succession event. This experiment is repeatable and can be conducted in the future in order to determine further changes in the floodplain.
https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/source/2022/COTS/84
Faculty Mentor(s)
Jeff Hashimoto