A analysis group is analyzing the viability of planting wild rice to fill the areas left when phragmites was faraway from sure Lake Erie marshes, comparable to Lengthy Level and Rondeau.
Rebecca Rooney, a professor on the College of Waterloo’s Wetlands Lab, has been a part of a group that has been wanting on the impacts of vegetation on native crops and wildlife since 2014. When a large-scale effort began to remove phragmites in 2016, there was already base information to make use of.
Phragmites removing, which has been led by the Nature Conservancy of Canada, has been very profitable in Lengthy Level and Rondeau, two of a very powerful waterfowl-staging areas. Whereas excessive water ranges contributed to the success, Rooney and her group observed one thing lacking.
“We weren’t getting the native vegetation we had been hoping,” she mentioned. “A part of that was the high-water ranges.”
Phragmites persist
It additionally turned obvious that phragmites seeds in just lately handled areas had been resulting in small-scale development, which was re-treated. Different invasives, comparable to European frogbit and Eurasian milfoil within the deeper areas, in addition to purple loosestrife additionally took maintain.
Earlier than phragmites took over, a lot of the handled deeper areas was initially stuffed with wild rice, offering meals and habitat for waterfowl, fish, and invertebrates. Now Rooney and her group are planting check plots of untamed rice in water greater than 30 cm deep and different native crops comparable to vervain, sedges, rushes, milkweed, and asters in shallower areas.
“We have to not solely take away phragmites however discover what’s greatest to place in to withstand newly established (phragmites) plots,” Rooney mentioned. “The objective of this research is to assist discover what native crops will give us one of the best resistance to maintain different invasive crops out.”
Lengthy Level Waterfowlers, the non-profit OFAH affiliate that runs looking within the Lengthy Level space, contributed to the analysis.
