A study on light-footed clapper rail was conducted since 1979. One of the study area is in the salt marsh in Anaheim Bay, the coastal salt marsh located in the Seal Beach National Wildlife Refuge. The environment of salt marsh was described: "The surrounding land lands are flat or gently sloping and provide little drainage into the bay. Consequently there are very little fresh water input other than winter rains… Most of the vegetation is characteristic of the low and middle littoral zones and is completely inundated by a 1.8 m tide (Mean Lower Low Water)." A list of major plants in the marsh was also provided: cordgrass (dominant plants at lower elevation), pickleweed and saltwort (dominant in middle elevation), seablite, saltgrass, sea lavender, arrowgrass, Jaumea carnosa, and Frankenia grandiflora. The dominating plants in the upper zone are glasswort and pickleweed. In the highest elevation (which sometimes is referred to as wetland/upland transition), there are no remaining native species.