Phragmites

So, phragmites. They're the super tall wispy wheat-like things in the photo above that are invasive. If you drive down any major interstate you can probably see them lining the roads in huge patches pretty much everywhere. They do so well because they start growing before anything native and continue growing for longer than anything else in the winter. They grow so tall that they steal the light from other plants until they die.

Normally they are left alone because of how widespread they have become but at Wellesley Island State Park they threaten the home of the little endangered guy below, the Blanding's Turtle. They also mess with the egg laying of some fish.

(Not my photo)

So we spent almost two weeks tearing these things down. We mostly used weed whackers except with blades instead of strings. Where the brush was too thick we army crawled through the snow and took them down by hand. They ruined two pairs of my gloves where they cut through and cut my hands. In the end we cleared almost 4 acres. 

The park has been working on getting approval to treat the phragmites with herbicide, or hopefully even better, a controlled burn. But until then, we are just trying to keep the patches from growing.