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Garden Club Scholarship
Tracy Elsey
P.O. Box 42451
University of Louisiana, Lafayette
Lafayette, LA 70504-2451
telsey@usgs.gov
 Tracy grew up in NYC and went to Bronx High School of Science and graduated 1994. She attended the University of Vermont in Burlington, VT and received a B.S. in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology in 1998. For five years, she has worked in various field technician positions, including Wildlife Technician
for coastal bird studies in Massachusettes and California, a Fisheries Tech position with the US Forest Service in Alaska, and positions studying habitat and native plant restoration in both New Zealand and California. She is pursuing a Master's of Science degree in Ecology and Environmental Science at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and is also employeed at the USGS National Wetlands Reseach Center in Lafayette, LA. She anticipates completing her Master's degree July 2005.
PATTERNS OF PLANT COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN A CREATED SALT MARSH ON THE GULF COAST OF LOUISIANA
One technique being employed to offset coastal landloss along the Gulf Coast is the creation of salt marshes using dredged sediments. In the Calcasieu Lake Estuary in southwest Louisiana, several salt marshes have been created using dredged sediments from the Calcasieu Ship Channel. It is unknown how plant species disperse onto and at distances into these marshes and furthermore how vegetation patterns emerge within these expansive marshes. My research examines both seed dispersal and plant recruitment at distances into a salt marsh created in 1999 and comparing these dynamics to a nearby reference marsh.
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