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is actually somewhat of a distortion that will be examined in 2009. When combining all the plants <br />along a single transect into one set of data there is no way to determine whether there is, in fact, a <br />change in community structure defined by some kind of boundary or transition zone. Visually, it is <br />evident that the cottonwoods are clustered somewhat more toward the eastern and higher elevation <br />land and the willows are clustered somewhat more toward the western side, adjacent to the big <br />wetland or in the big wetland where it encroaches into the exclosure. This is a bit more visible on the <br />middle transect and is the total pattern on the southern transect. <br />It is also significant that the greatest gains in cottonwood growth were along the southern and <br />the middle transect with actually a decline in mean height for cottonwood on the northern transect. <br />This all further supports the idea that Exclosure 2 actually contains two rather distinct vegetation <br />forms. Thus, in 2009, the task will be to not only monitor the overall changes, but to identify the <br />nature of the transition between the community where willow seems to predominate and the <br />community where cottonwood is dominant. This was vaguely identifiable in 2006 and, by visual <br />inspection of the site and the raw data, appears to be a bit more evident now, but still showing a lot <br />of overlap. Perhaps in 2009 this will resolve itself better and provide some more definite information <br />regarding how willow and cottonwood growth blend across a gradual topographic gradient. <br />2008 Annual Report Coal Creek Wetland Mitigation Permit DA 198811488 Page 10