between 1952 and 1974 in the Black Lake marshes south of the Intracoastal Waterway, west of 

 Alkali Ditch, and east of Cameron Farms (Adams et al. 1978). This area experienced one of the 

 highest marsh loss rates of any comparable area in coastal Louisiana for this period. 



Although the exact cause of this marsh deterioration has not been documented, it is thought 

 that several contributing factors are increased salinities (Adams et al. 1978), erosion of the soil 

 surface, subsidence, and excessive water depths. 



In 1984, the landowner and lessee of an impounded 541-ha marsh bordering the northeast 

 shore of Black Lake (Figure 1) developed a conservation plan for revegetating the eroded marsh 

 areas. 



Vegetated and open water areas were measured from available aerial photographs, 

 percentage of emergent vegetation and open water are presented in Table 1. 



The 



O'Neil (1949) classified this management unit as fresh and intermediate marsh. The dominate 

 vegetation until approximately 1960 was Jamaica sawgrass (W.P. Hardeman, Amoco Prod. Co., 

 Lake Charles, LA; pers. comm.). Chabreck (1978) classified the area as brackish marsh. 



Based on information from Turner (1987), it is thought that increased salinities in this manage- 

 ment unit eliminated less salt-tolerant species and a simultaneous increase in water depth caused 



Intracoastal Waterway 



\\> 



i 



N 



Figure 1. Vicinity map for 541-ha management unit 



165 



