Managing Invasive Phragmites in Coastal Wetlands of Lake St. Clair

Natural coastal wetlands have a profound, positive influence on the water quality in the Great Lakes region. Coastal wetlands are often sacrificed for commercial, recreational and residential development. Along with shoreline development, pollution, turbid storm runoff and the introduction of invasive species greatly diminish our freshwater heritage.

Wetlands slow storm runoff, filter pollutants, suppress waves that would erode the shoreline, and serve as food, shelter and incubator sources for many native fish, mammal, bird and insect species.

Of the numerous invasive species decimating our waters and wetlands in recent decades, phragmites (frag-MY-teze), a tall, virulent reed, is one of the most insidious.

Phragmites can spread by root or seed, expanding in concentrations so dense that it crowds out all other plants, while simultaneously reducing the nutrition, shelter and nursery functions of diverse, native wetland plants.

In a remarkable display of stewardship, a sportsmen’s organization, Ducks Unlimited, aided by federal, state and local partners, organized and implemented a project to control phragmites, including 1200 acres of wetlands in the Anchor Bay portion of Lake St. Clair.

https://www.greatlakesphragmites.net/files/Kafcas_Lake-St.-Clair-status-update.pdf

Local Phragmites Eradication / State Grants

“Phragmites australis (frag-MY-teez), also known as common reed, is a perennial, wetland grass that can grow to 15 feet in height … [A]n invasive, non-native, variety of phragmites is becoming widespread and is threatening the ecological health of wetlands ... Invasive phragmites creates tall, dense stands which degrade wetlands and coastal areas by crowding out native plants and animals ...”

http://www.michigan.gov/deq/0,4561,7-135-3313_71151_71481_8314-178183--,00.html

PHRAGMITES

Phragmites is spreading rapidly across Michigan, from shorelines and roadside ditches to just about any wet nook and cranny.

Fortunately, a new means of controlling invasive plant species is being implemented. It is called a Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area or CISMA.

“The Michigan Invasive Species Grant Program, launched by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources [MDNR] in 2014, awarded $4.2 million to groups in its first year for projects ranging from mapping oak wilt on private lands to creating a network for data on invasive species.”

“The program recently announced another $3.6-million round that will expand the range and impact of the program around the state. Two of the grants are going to groups in metro Detroit.”

http://www.secondwavemedia.com/metromode/features/phragmites-invasive-species-oakland-macomb-021816.aspx

One of the groups is in Oakland County. (The other is for Lake St. Clair.) Brittany Bird is vice chair of the Oakland County CISMA. She says that there are 62 independent home rule municipalities in Oakland County to which the county cannot dictate management of nuisance species like phragmites. Cooperation has to be negotiated with municipalities in order to devise a seamless eradication program. The Oakland group is comprised of a number of municipalities, county agencies and NGOs. MDNR’s initial award to the Oakland County CISMA is $243,775.

Similarly, the Lake St. Clair group includes diverse participants such as nonprofits and local, county and state agencies.

Officials of cities, townships and villages not yet participating are encouraged to join an existing group or form one of their own.

Clearing Phragmites from Wetlands

Clean water in Lake St. Clair depends in significant part on healthy shoreline wetlands.

Mallard Ducklings - Mike Powell

Wetlands slow and filter storm runoff, provide shelter for fish, birds and other wildlife and incubate their young. But a vast array of native wetlands plant life is being choked out by invasive plants.

One in particular spreads rapidly, the ubiquitous tall reed with the feathery top that you see in wet places where there used to be cattails. It is phragmites (frag-MY-teez), an invasive plant from Europe.


Phragmites grows in thickets that now dominate many Great Lakes shorelines, as well as inland ponds, lake shores and ditches.


In addition to displacing other plants, dense stands of phragmites crowd out birds, mammals and amphibians. The plant also inhibits commercial and recreational uses.


Eighty percent of the phragmites plant is underground. It can reach heights of 15 feet or more. The roots can radiate 60 feet, reach a depth of six feet and expand outward at the rate of six feet per year. These giant weeds spread more rapidly by their roots and broken fragments than by seeds.


The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency committed nearly a million dollars to a 1200 acre (later expanded) phragmites eradication project undertaken by Ducks Unlimited, which provided matching funds, around northern Lake St. Clair from 2010 to 2013.  http://glri.us/projects/epa.html

A Ducks Unlimited spokesman reported:

The spread of highly invasive Phragmites (Phragmites australis) is a recent and major factor in the degradation of Lake St. Clair’s coastal wetlands. The recent decrease in Great Lakes water levels has lead to the expansion of emergent vegetation in the littoral zone of Lake St. Clair; however, lower water levels have also facilitated the rapid expansion of Phragmites. In many areas of Lake St. Clair, Phragmites is expanding at a much faster rate than native emergent plants. With its strong capacity to spread by rhizomes, near-monotypic stands of invasive Phragmites have replaced high quality, complex communities of native plants, leading to loss of fish and wildlife habitat, biodiversity, and a native plant community resiliency. In addition to impacts on the area’s natural resources, the residents of Lake St. Clair have also observed ecological, economic and social impacts as a result of the Phragmites invasion.

Ducks Unlimited (DU) along with project partners approached this project through 3 primary components: 1) an integrated management effort to control Phragmites on both public and private coastal wetlands through aerial and ground herbicide treatments, followed by mowing, burning and spot herbicide treatments, 2) monitoring the response of native vegetation and avifauna to these enhancement efforts, and 3) implementation of a public education and outreach program to inform citizens about the impacts and effective management of Phragmites.

http://greatlakesphragmites.net/project-anchor-bay-st-clair-flats-phragmites-control-and-education-project/

The work continues through successive phases.