Evolution of the Western Stege Marsh, aka the Conner Peterson Recovery Site

I was so excited when I found this report by the Richmond Field Station.  The aerials, topographic maps, and survey sheets are just fantastic to show the evolution of the site.  What was once all water became a tidal mudflat with the construction of some rock breakwaters, and then a tidal marsh as the vegetation grew over the years.

Figure 18 is especially interesting, as it shows the channel networks digitized (I call them creeks) for 1957, 1973, and 1996.  Mr. Distaso, this is where all that water portrayed in People's 100 came from -- tidal channels in the north 3/4 of the site, not over the south breakwater.  You should have done some research!

Breakwaters were first constructed in 1931, as shown in the Topographic Survey Sheet T-4672 (USC&GS), but the ones that exist today are shown by the 1942 Topographic Map (USGS) and, a few pages down, the 1943 Topographic Survey Sheet T-5927 (USC&GS).

The Western Stege Marsh is also called the Meeker Slough Wetlands in some sources.