Point Pelee marsh project tackling Phragmites

By Mark Ribble

LEAMINGTON – Point Pelee National Park’s Marsh Restoration Project has been a couple of years in the making, but it’s well underway and lots of resources are being put behind the initiative.

Last week, a short Facebook Live session was held to educate interested parties on what the project is all about.

The Point Pelee marsh covers about 1,000 hectares and makes up over two-thirds of Canada’s southernmost National Park.

Emma Burbidge, Point Pelee’s Resource Conservation Technician, has been working on the project for about a year-and-a-half.

“There has been a significant loss of open water since 1959,” said Burbidge. “That leads to loss of edge habitat, which in turn leads to reduced habitat diversity.”

Andrew Laforet cuts away some Phragmites stragglers behind the Delaurier Trail.

Sun photo

Over the years, Essex County’s wetland cover has diminished greatly and now only contains less than two per cent wetland cover.

Point Pelee is a large portion of that wetland cover and protects 19 species at risk within the park.

Those species at risk include reptiles, mammals, birds and plants.

A comparison of overhead photos from 1959, 1977, 2004 and 2015 show a distinct difference in the amount of open water in Point Pelee’s marshes compared to 60 years ago.

Where there were once channels linking small and large ponds, overgrowth of plant life has made those channels invisible.

There are two invasive plant species responsible for the decline of open water in Point Pelee’s marshes — Invasive Cattail and European Common Reed.

The Invasive Cattail is not native to Point Pelee, but has caught on and created a hybrid with native cattails in the marsh.

The European Common Reed is better known to most as Phragmites.

The Phragmites growth within the park is impeding native plants from growing and covering up open water and edge vegetation where many species can live and thrive.

As part of the park’s Marsh Restoration Project, crews are busy daily cutting down massive stands of Phragmites in different areas of the park.

Last week a crew of nine was busy at the back of the DeLaurier Trail, where the invasive reed had created a wall between the trail boardwalk and the marsh itself.

Resource conservation student Shaawnonoo Altiman, adds more cut Phragmites onto the pile along the Delaurier Trail. The piles will be burned once they have time to dry and can safely be ignited.

Point Pelee’s Resource Project Coordinator, Andrew Laforet, says the work has been hard, but they are making some great headway.

“The crew continues to surprise me just how much we can get done in a day,” he said. “This will create better habitat and enhance the visitor experience.”

Laforet explained that the crew is cutting the phragmites with trimmers and saws under the surface of the water.

“The remaining roots will drown because they’re starved of oxygen,” he said. “If the odd one does grow back, we can stay on top of it.”

Laforet says that a large area behind the Delaurier Trail was totally dwarfed by tall Phragmites just two weeks ago, and now the difference is quite visible.

“You can see the trees and out into the marsh now, whereas before all you saw was phragmites,” he said.

He credits his crew with getting the job done and notes that they will move on to other areas when they finish there.

They have already cleared a wide area along the Shuster Trail in the park, where they discovered a Least Bittern nest.

The bird is a species at risk for Parks Canada that likes to nest near areas of open water. Once they found the nest, they made sure to tread lightly around it.

“We can revisit that area in the fall, once they’ve moved on, and finish it off with the equipment,” he said.

The crew will next attempt working with the big machinery at Marsh Boardwalk and in the northwestern corners of the marsh, where Phragmites and invasive cattails have closed off pond channels.

“We’re going to get the big machines going in August to open up some of the canoeing routes,” he said.

The big machines he’s referring to are the Aquatic Vegetation Cutter and the Aquatic Weed Harvester. Both are instrumental in clearing out marshes by chopping through cattail mat that is as much as three feet thick.

For more information on the Marsh Restoration Project at Point Pelee National Park, visit the park’s Facebook page and view the video, which will be up on the site for another two weeks.