OGDEN BAY — Flooding along the shores of the Great Salt Lake in the 1980s wiped the wetland canvas clean. Phragmites then appeared to help repaint the wetland picture in flowing acres of waving green stems and golden-brown plumes.
The problem is, phragmites wasn't an invited guest. It's an alien species that had invaded Utah's northern marshes.
A campaign to try and remove the reedlike plants was started last week. Large areas around Ogden and Farmington bays were chemically treated.
Now, said Tom Aldrich, waterfowl manager for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, "We wait and see. We'll never be rid of it. We can only hope we can get it to a point where we can economically control it."
Phragmites australis, or common reed, is an ornamental plant that on appearances would seem to fit well into the family of wetland plant life. It has wide leaves, a tall stem, upward of 14 feet, and a beautiful plume of tiny flowers on the tip of the stem. Its thick pods give a carpetlike look to vast areas of marshy lands.
In reality, said Aldrich, "Phragmites has very low wildlife value. It has no food value and offers no cover for waterfowl. It invades an area and pushes out the more valuable plants, such as alkali bulrush.
"What makes it more menacing is it is very difficult to remove. I haven't plotted out areas yet, but it has taken over tens of thousands of acres of marsh."
There is some debate over how phragmites, pronounced frag-mite-ees, came to North America. Some suggest it is native, while others say it was introduced. As mentioned, it is an ornamental plant that can be purchased from a local gardening store.
Here in Utah, it was found in small pockets until the flooding of the Great Salt Lake back in the 1980s. The rising waters of the lake covered and killed much of the wetland vegetation. When the waters receded, "vegetation was gone from just about every marsh around the lake," continued Aldrich. "In this situation, the plants that have the advantage of the salt-tolerant, very aggressive species, like phragmites.
"It grows so tall and so thick, there's no understory below. No other plants can grow. Now we have these huge monotypic stands of phragmites. It has really taken over the marshes."
And, as he noted, it's extremely difficult to remove.
The plant is wind pollinated and self-incompatible. Seeds develop in the fall and winter, but it is mainly spread by rhizomes or underground roots. A single seed, through rhizomes, can develop into huge stands of phragmites with more than 200 plants.
"The greatest concentration of phragmites is from Ogden Bay south. It's a huge problem. Seen from the air, it's incredible how dense these stands are and how much area they cover. Like I said, it's tens of thousands of acres," he added.
With help from the Utah Waterfowl Association, the DWR was given $200,000 from state watershed funding to fight phragmites this year.
Aerial treatment started last week.
"The reason we're treating now," said Aldrich, "is the plant is taking available resources and putting them down into the roots. In the spring and midsummer it's taking these resources from the roots and pushing them up into the plant. At this time of year we're able to get to the roots, which is what is needed to kill the plant."
This is the first of what Aldrich said is a three-year program for a target area. The first year being aerial spraying, followed up the next year by on-the-ground treatment of surviving plants, followed up the third year by more on-the-ground spraying.
"In order to make this work, though, we'll need to burn to get rid of the biomass in order to see those areas that weren't reached so we can go back and treat them. But burning is becoming more and more difficult because of air-quality issues. But burning is going to make a big difference in how well we're able to control phragmites."
Because of the rigid stems, even when the plant is dead it remains standing, which is the reason burning is necessary to identify surviving stands.
A few years ago, aerial treatment wasn't possible because of the high expense. Patent limitations and the high cost of airplane spreading put the cost per acre at around $110. Today the chemical is less expensive and aerial costs are lower.
"Now we can treat an acre for between $25 and $50. It's still expensive, but it is far less than what it was," he noted.
Other methods of treatment, such as cutting, burning, covering stands with plastic and even trying to deny it water have been ineffective. Biologists have tried to drain wetlands in an attempt to kill the plant, but once water is returned the plant revives.
Getting pesticides to the root of the plant has proved to be the best method found to successfully kill the plant.
Once the plant has been removed, said Aldrich, there are more than enough seeds of the more desirable plants in the soil to revegetate the land.
Because the stem of phragmites is rigid, in earlier days the plant was used to build homes and thatched roofs, boats, mats, arrows, baskets and even make pen tips. They are so rigid, in fact, the stems can pierce the feet of animals.
Aldrich said that, depending on funding, he hopes to hit phragmites hard for the next five years, "and get to a point where it won't cost us thousands of dollars each year. Phragmites is here to stay, however, and we will need some level of spraying every year."
Without some controls, it's possible that phragmites could outcompete and overrun other more valuable species of marsh plants, rendering Utah's wetlands far less beneficial to wildlife and waterfowl, a condition that has biologists worried.