SentinelsNC

SentinelsNC is part of a citizen's app project collecting locations, images, and observations about the health of cypress trees within North Carolina. We are studying the extent of changing forested wetlands within the North Carolina coastal plain and the effects of erosion on inland areas leading to flooding and saltwater intrusion into otherwise freshwater wetlands. Cypress trees are excellent indicator of increased flooding and saltwater stress within wetlands as they are tolerant to flooding in up to three feet of water but become stunted or die under salty conditions or when floodwaters becomes too high for too long. We see them as the sentinels of forested wetlands within North Carolina, being the dominant species of some of the oldest and most well preserved swamps within North Carolina. We hope to use observations collected by the public to help map the extent of cypress growth and decline within North Carolina and ground truth our own mapping models. For more about our project you can visit our website sentinelsnc.weebly.com or contact us directly at sentinelsnc@gmail.com. Help us map the sentinels of NC's coastal plain! less ↑