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Wetland Classification and Mapping of the Kenai Lowland, Alaska
Map Unit Descriptions Ecosystem: Relict Glacial Drainageway Map Component: DW1
Extent: 3 wetland polygons; 15.5 ha; 0.01% of wetland area; 0.02% of wetland polygons. |
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 A DW1 unit in the center of a large Relict Glacial Drainageway in the Soldotna Creek watershed (polygon 346). |
Wetland Indicators Type: Peat Average depth to water table: Water table at or above the surface. Organic layer thickness: not measured Average depth to redoximorphic features: not measured Common Soils: none mapped by NRCS, but the hydric SALAMATOF and STARICHKOF series would be expected. Common Plant communities: Tall cottongrass – Livid sedge Water sedge / Marsh fivefinger Beaked sedge – Water horsetail Sphagnum moss - Creeping sedge
NWI: PEM1Hg HGM: Terrene Slope/Flat Throughflow (headwater) |
| Accuracy assessment: None of the 3 polygons interpreted as DW1 on aerial photographs were field checked, although all the units currently mapped as DW1 have been visited. | |
Only three DW1 map components have been mapped, two along Soldotna Creek and the other flowing into a created Lake, Beluga Lake, in Homer. DW1 is the component in the Relict Glacial Drainageway Ecosystem dominated by standing, flowing water with no stream channel. Usually, emergent sedges and/ or forbs such as creeping sedge (Carex chordorrhiza) and buckbean (Menyanthes trifoliata) are present. In complex with other components, they are widespread and associated with poorly integrated relict drainage channels, especially in the area between Soldotna and Sterling, and on the terrace treads of the moraines between Ninilchik and Kasilof.
DW1 components are commonly too narrow to map separately, but frequently form a complex with other components. The common DW1-3 complex, for example, is a Relict Glacial Drainageway with a linear open water DW1 center, fringed first by a sedge dominated DW2 component, then a shrubby, hummocky DW3 component.
