GSS Travels to Upstate New York

From May 20th – May 22nd, GSS staff members Kevin Stark and Nick Lemcke spent time ground-truthing wetland mapping as part of a current NWI update. GSS was joined in the field by NWI staff members Amanda Pachomski, Lauren Healey, and Whitney Kroschel. The study area is located south of Lake Ontario and is within the corridor between Rochester and Syracuse, NY. The landscape is a direct result of glaciation and includes flat to gently undulating lake plains, dissected drumlin fields, and deeply incised ‘finger lakes’ to the south. During the trip, GSS examined multiple different wetlands including: open water features, river floodplains, emergent marshes and meadows, forested and scrub shrub swamps, and saturated forested and scrub shrub wetland communities.