When I first saw Dave Nutter's post about what the charter school teacher/students had in mind I was going to write almost what Phillip Bonn has written. All one has to do is look at May's pool to see how fast an area is overgrown & ruined by cattails. Think how quickly the Main pool has filled back in after the muskrats had all but wiped out cattails (on the surface) several yrs. ago. Now Tschache is showing signs of its invasiveness. I'm also noticing that Phragmites are being allowed to grow on the refuge.
Too many people get "ideas" that "sound good" but are anything BUT! To get them off their backs, those in authority who should know better, cave in This is an issue, an idea, that needs more thought & more resistance from all of us birders. Fritzie On 11/10/2015 8:07 PM, Phillip Bonn wrote: > > Hello everyone, > > I usually don’t reply to posts but this one really caught my attention. > > Cattails are highly invasive and spread by underground runners as well > as by seed. They can and will grow in areas you don’t want them and > create monocultures…not good for a wetlands project. > > I suggest that they plant something more beneficial to wildlife; > Arrowhead is a good choice, ducks love eating the roots, pickerel weed > is another good choice as are bulrushes or sedges. All these are low > growing emergent plants that supply vegetative cover and food. > > The Plantsman has some sedges/rushes they could purchase or check with > the Lab of O, see what they have planted in the pond, maybe they would > be willing to give them some root stock. > > Ask a wildlife biologist for input on what to plant other than > cattails, they might as well plant Phragmities! > > Anything but cattails! > > -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
