For several years previous to the establishment of the transect, 
there was apparently no regular program of burning in the area of 
Transect A according to information available to us. Burns made for 
cattle management on the "sea rim" probably more or less regularly 
affected the last 500 feet of the transect. During the autumn of 1954 
scattered burns were made along the transect. Most of the transect 
was burned during the autumn of 1955. 
Salinities of water at the surface of the ground were generally 
lowest at the beginning of the transect and greatest at the end. They 
ranged fron 7 to 29 percent of sea water. 
During the summer of 1956, two stations were eliminated by the 
construction of a canal and levee across the transect. 
Transect B, 5,100 feet in length, was located on the Paul J. 
Rainey Sanctuary of the National Audubon Society in Vermilion Parish. 
The area was selected to study the recovery of vegetation said to 
have been destroyed by muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus rivalicius) and 
later damaged by nutria. The area was formerly covered with southern 
bulrush, big cordgrass, reed, and cattail, the last resulting from 
muskrat “eat-outs." After “cessation of muskrat trapping on the sanc- 
tuary in 1936, uncontrolled muskrat populations "ate out" the marsh. 
About 1945, nutria had increased to such an extent that further 
damage occurred to the vegetation (John J. Lynch, verbal communica- 
tion). When nutria first appeared in the region, according to reports 
they showed a preference for cattail and all but eliminated it. They 
