TRAVERSE CITY — Before you mow, here's something to know: Mowing or cutting invasive phragmites or Japanese knotweed encourages the invasive plants to grow and spread.
Local invasive species experts suggest a little research before plowing ahead under new state rules that cut regulations for shoreline weed control efforts.
The Watershed Center Grand Traverse Bay can provide information on how to effectively control and eradicate European phragmites. And the Grand Traverse Conservation District can answer questions about suspected Japanese knotweed, an ornamental plant from Asia that has been illegal to sell, purchase or plant in Michigan since 2005.
"Japanese knotweed is not abundant here yet, but we want to know about it if people see it," said Robin Christensen, the conservation district's invasive species coordinator. "It has the potential of being worse than phragmites."
Invasive phragmites are considered a serious problem to Great Lakes health. They can grow up to 14 feet tall, form extensive dense colonies and crowd out native plants and habitat, limiting water access, damaging property values, blocking views, and causing insects and birds to vanish.
Great Lakes shoreline property owners no longer need permits under Michigan's new beach grooming law to mow or cut beach grasses below the ordinary high water mark, but they still must apply for and receive a DEQ aquatic nuisance control permit to treat any plant with herbicides below that mark.
Japanese knotweed is an aggressive bamboo-like plant. It has a strong roots that can extend nine feet deep, push through pavement or sidewalks and damage building foundations.
Locally, clusters have been discovered at two areas near West Bay and two areas near East Bay. Both sites are involved in a three-year chemical treatment program.
Invasive species have many common traits. They spread rapidly and form monocultures that crowd out native species. They often are "phytotoxic," and release a poison into the soil that hinders other plants' growth.
Some have long tap roots. For instance, 80 percent of the phragmites plant is underground. Killing its roots at the right time with the right chemical during the right growth state is the only way to eradicate it.
In 2010, the Grand Traverse Conservation District received a $935,000 federal grant to establish the Invasive Species Network to help stem the invaders' growth and launch public identification programs and provide information on how to effectively remove them.
The network includes about 20 agencies, organizations and nonprofits that wage battle against baby's breath and spotted knapweed in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Leelanau and Benzie counties, as well as Canada thistle, autumn olive, buckthorn and reed canary grass in the Boardman River Valley.
The National Park Service added boot-brush and information stations at some trail heads and places along the lakeshore to block invasive seeds from hitching a ride on hikers' books into new territories.
Peninsula Township, with its 42 miles of Grand Traverse Bay shoreline, has eradicated phragmites by almost 80 percent.
Phragmites once covered Lighthouse Park property, township planner Dan Leonard said. Today the park is free of new growth, while native plants take root and fill in. As a result, treatment costs have dropped from $21,000 in 2009 to $13,000 in 2011.
Region
Related Photos
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Phragmites grow among native plants at Gens Park along East Bay. Record-Eagle/Keith King
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Conservation district volunteers Doug Campbell and Sandy Robey help staff members Matthew Bertrand, in hat, and Paul Secora remove invasive thistle plants from Boardman Pond bottomlands in a May work bee. Special to the Record-Eagle/Grand Traverse Conservation Dist
Advice: Research before cutting
Mowing can actually encourage growth and spreading
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