invasive species

Prairie Fen Series – Being a Prairie Fen Steward

/ camrynbrent1 / 1 Comment

Welcome to the final post in this series! In the first post, we discussed the unique geological processes that form prairie fens. Then in the second post, we presented plant species that we can use to discover prairie fen habitats. Lastly, we will be discussing the threats prairie fens face, what we are doing on-site, and why our efforts are so important.

My time at the parks has come to a close. Having arrived in the early spring and leaving in the early fall, I have witnessed lots of change. I followed the life stages of plants as they transitioned through the seasons. From emergence to bloom to death, I got to be a part of it all. Just as amazing, this was the first position where I was able to actually see the results of our stewardship efforts.

The photo was taken of Paint Creek Heritage Area – Fen in late summer.

I personally have felt the most fulfillment from working at the prairie fen off the Paint Creek Trail. Oakland Township’s portion of this fen is only about a half-acre, but the larger fen habitat extends up and down Paint Creek. Even with its small size and history of fragmentation and disturbance, our little fen patch is resilient. We hope to restore our park’s prairie fens to their full biodiversity capacity.

Threats and restoration

Our Paint Creek Heritage Area – Fen can be used as a case study of the major threats these natural communities face. Our fen was once a part of a larger wetland complex extending to its south and west, but the connections to this wetland and the surrounding uplands have been damaged over time. Due to the parcel’s small size, there is little buffering it from encroaching development. The smaller a site, the more vulnerable it may be to changes in the surrounding landscape and threats. These threats mainly include a lack of fire, invasive species, nutrient pollution, and changes in hydrology.

Fire Suppression

Just like our oak lands and prairies, the suppression of fire on the landscape and the removal of indigenous land management practices have changed the composition of our prairie fen. The loss of fire has compacted the sedge meadow zone of the fen while increasing the woody zone (check out the previous post to learn more about fen vegetation zones).

Interestingly, the majority of our fire-dependent landscapes in Michigan that have held on after European colonization have been along railroads. In the late 19th century a railroad was built on what is now the Paint Creek Trail, cutting right through the fen. As mentioned in Cam Mannino’s previous blog post, fires sparked by passing trains spread into the surrounding landscape, maintaining natural communities like oak savanna, prairie, and prairie fen.

Photo (L) was taken in 2015 and photo (R) was taken in 2016 at the Paint Creek Heritage Area- Prairie Fen.

With the decommissioning of the railroad in the late 1970s, we now need prescribed fires to maintain the integrity of the prairie fen. We try to use controlled burns every 3-5 years to preserve the remnant prairie fen. The burns control invasive woody shrubs and remove dead stalks of Phragmites and invasive cattails after treatment. In addition, fire encourages plants to bloom more profusely and allows seeds of fen plants to germinate. The last controlled burn at the site occurred in 2019.

Invasive Species

Invasive species may proliferate due to problems, like fire suppression, nutrient pollution, or hydrology changes. Often, though, invasive species both exacerbate these problems and create new issues of their own. Both invasive cattails and Phragmites grow more vigorously in wetlands with lots of nutrients. The dense stands of Phragmites and cattail, and the thick layers of dead thatch that accumulate, crowd out fen plants. Invasive woody shrubs like glossy buckthorn and common buckthorn often invade fens that have dried out due to hydrology changes that result from building a trail, berm, or road through a fen, fo example. However, these invasive shrubs can also change conditions in a fen to facilitate their own invasion.

Photo (L) taken underneath the tamarack canopy in 2016 where Grass-of-Parnassus (Parnassia glauca) was abundant amid emerging glossy buckthorn seedlings (Frangula alnus). Photo (R) taken this season after a day spent cutting buckthorn and treating stumps.

When our Paint Creek Heritage Area – Fen was acquired over a decade ago, large areas had already been encroached by invasive woody shrubs, narrow-leaved cattails, and Phragmites. We have prioritized saving the core area of our fen by controlling invasive Phragmites and cattails over the last five years. Fen plants like shrubby cinquefoil, Kalm’s lobelia, and grass-of-Parnassus are growing again in areas that used to be dense Phragmites or cattails.

Now we’re starting to work on the invasive shrubs that are spreading into the fen from the edges. In one area glossy buckthorn shaded out a nice Grass-of-Parnassus patch. This year the stewardship crew started clearing the glossy buckthorn so it may return.

Nutrient Pollution

Our fen-specialist plants are adapted to growing in alkaline, low-nutrient environments. Increased nutrient inputs from farm runoff, lawn fertilizer, leaky septic tanks, or deposited from the atmosphere through rainfall really change the function of a prairie fen by favoring more generalist wetland plants and invasive plants that can take advantage of increased nutrient levels. Left unchecked, Phragmites, invasive cattails, reed canary grass, and purple loosestrife that like high nutrient levels often grow in dense stands with no other plants, patches that we describe as “monocultures.”

A cattail monoculture at the Paint Creek Heritage Area – Fen before (L) and recently after (R) treatment.

We often can’t address past or ongoing nutrient pollution issues directly if they happen off our property, so try to limit the damage from high nutrient levels. The last three years the stewardship crew has been working at selectively treating narrow leaf cattail stands. To learn more about how this treatment is done, check out a past blog post. I have hailed it as being one of the most taxing yet most rewarding stewardship tasks. I know that each treatment causes the cattails to shrink away and reveal more prairie fen habitat.

Change in Hydrology

The steady supply of cold, calcium, and magnesium-rich water in fens really is their lifeblood. Unfortunately, many property owners don’t realize how special fens are and permanently damaged them by digging ponds. In addition to scooping up valuable fen, digging ponds lowers the water table by creating a low spot in the wetland where water can collect. This creates drier areas that become establishment hotspots for invasive species like glossy buckthorn and other invasive shrubs.

A wall of glossy buckthorn creeps into a fen, slowly shading out the unique wetland plants that this class visited to observe! This photo was taken in Bakertown Fen Preserve in SW Michigan by Grant Vander Laan.

Other changes can affect fen hydrology directly or indirectly. In the past, many fens were dried out by the installation of drain tiles and ditches to “improve” them for agriculture. Building roads, driveways, and trails disrupt the flow of water through a fen by acting like a dam, creating wetter conditions above and drier conditions below. Extracting water with wells for irrigation or other uses can also deplete aquifers that feed fens. It is critical that we partner with surrounding landowners to protect the water that charges the prairie fen.

Over time the landscape around our fen has become more fragmented, more developed, and full of invasive plant species. Aerial photographs from Oakland County.

Why Put In the Effort?

Although our fen is small, it has many high-quality specialist plant species present. Fen ecosystems also support a plethora of rare insect and animal species. In fact, several insect species rely entirely on prairie fen communities and would go extinct without them. You can check out the rare plants and animals associated with prairie fens at Michigan Natural Features Inventory (MNFI).

Prairie fens are globally rare wetlands that are rich in biodiversity. This photo is of our newly acquired prairie fen at Fox Nature Preserve. It is one of our higher-quality parcels.

With our fen off the Paint Creek Trail, it only becomes increasingly difficult to buffer it from the effects of habitat fragmentation. This is especially true for prairie fens, as they often blend into surrounding uplands, wetlands, and bodies of water. However, even in the face of fragmentation, species may be able to persist if they can move between small high-quality parcels. As you might imagine, this may be more difficult for a slow-moving species like a turtle than it is for a flying insect like a butterfly.

A restored prairie fen right next to the Paint Creek Trail is also an excellent educational opportunity for trail users. Since it is only half an acre, the site is manageable and able to show the significance of our stewardship work. As with any restoration project, it is imperative that objectives are well-defined. In the case of the Paint Creek Heritage Area, our team is working to maintain high-quality habitat that trail users may be able to see and learn from. With our invasive shrub removal efforts near the trail, we hope the prairie fen will become more visible to folks passing by. We also hope that other township residents and neighboring properties join us as prairie fen stewards. The more we protect the surrounding area, and the more we get people involved to protect our fen, the greater the impact of our little half acre will have.

Each Action Makes a Difference

Baby Blanding’s Turtle (Emydoidea blandingii)
Appalachian Brown (Satyrodes appalachia)
Photos were taken at Paint Creek Heritage Area – Fen this summer.

Stewardship work is often laborious and ceaselessly repetitive. The blood, sweat, and tears our stewardship crew spent at the half-acre fen parcel have been rewarded time and again by our encounters with fen dwellers. Whether it is the noisy flush of a spooked woodcock or the silent presence of a butterfly, visits to the fen never felt lonesome. While treating our last group of narrow-leaf cattail for the season, fellow steward Cassie spotted a baby Blanding’s turtle. After she set the baby down, she turned to me and exclaimed how happy she was to have seen that turtle. We had been selectively hand-wicking cattails all morning. We were tired and hungry for lunch. But after releasing the prehistoric baby back into a pool of groundwater, we continued our tedious task with newfound ambition. Our work was making a difference.

Attention Anglers! A Menace to Rivers May Be Hitching a Ride!

/ Cam Mannino / Leave a comment
nz mudsnail by kate mccombs cc by-nc (1)

The very tiny and very invasive New Zealand Mud Snail, photo by Kate MCCombs (CC BY-NC)

Meet the New Zealand Mud Snail (Potamopyrgus antipodarum), a very problematic, tiny snail (up to  only 1/8th of an inch!) which is one of the latest invasive species to begin changing the Great Lakes ecosystem.

Cam in red winter coat BC

Text by Cam Mannino

At a recent Oakland Township Stewardship Presentation, Emily Bovee and Kennedy Phillips of the Aquatic Ecology Lab at Oakland University shared their extensive knowledge and research on this hitchhiking snail that’s begun infesting Michigan rivers and lakes. The program was quite an education! Here’s a brief overview of some of the information they presented.

Please note that the photos in this blog were generously shared by photographers from iNaturalist.org and by the researchers at Oakland University. Names and permissions are listed in the captions on their photos. 

Michigan’s Problem with Invasive Species

Our state is surrounded by the Great Lakes, which hold 20% of the world’s freshwater. Unfortunately, it is also now home to 180 non-native species.  How do these species get here?

  • Waterway connections, e.g., the Sea Lamprey arrived through the St. Lawrence Seaway.
  • Released pets and aquarium water.
  • Aquaculture – the movement of fish or eggs from commercial fisheries may have brought the mud snail originally. The transport of exotic water plants can do it, too.
  • Ballast water in ships can harbor them. For example, the invasive Zebra Mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) arrived this way and perhaps the New Zealand Mud Snail as well.
  • Boats, other watercraft and recreational activity can spread the unwelcome New Zealand Mud Snail from river to river, river to lake.

The problem with invasive species is that, once established, they alter the very environment in which our native creatures have lived for thousands of years. Often, for instance, they eat the food on which on our native species depend. By doing that, they can cause local extinctions and generally make the ecosystem less healthy, less able to adapt. Some, like the Quagga (Dreissena bugensis) and Zebra Mussels contribute to the creation of toxic dead zones caused by  huge algae blooms that use up all the available oxygen in the water. What a mess!

Now We’re Dealing with the New Zealand Mud Snail

Benson, A.J., R.M. Kipp, J. Larson, and A. Fusaro, 2019, Potamopyrgus antipodarum: U.S. Geological Survey, Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database, Gainesville, FL

This very tiny menace is called a “mud snail” because it hides buried in the mud during the day and emerges at night to feed. It feeds on algae, decomposing leaves, or wood that falls into the water. As a result, mud snails live in areas where the current slows and plant material is deposited. That, of course, is also a place where anglers frequently find the fish they are seeking!

Mud Snails Reproduce by Cloning Like Crazy!

sea-kangaroo cc by-nc-nd (1)

New Zealand Mud Snails are tiny and clone themselves into huge densities. Photo by sea-kangaroo (CC BY-NC-ND)

Although New Zealand Mud Snails are both male and female in their native range, the ones here in North America are all females – and they can clone like crazy! In fact, DNA analysis indicates that the millions of mud snails already in the U.S. originated from as few as three females! These snails produce live young about every 2-4 months and can produce over 200 hundred in one year, and each of those can produce 200 more – and well, you see the problem. The Oakland University researchers have found colonies of 30,000 in a square meter (about 10 square feet) in the Au Sable River, Michigan’s internationally known trout stream. In the western United States, where the snails have existed since 1987, researchers find 500,000 in a square meter!

Tough Competitors Who Can Survive Almost Anything!

These are tough little females! New Zealand Mud Snails are fresh water snails, but can tolerate salty water, and survive excessive heat and winter ice. They thrive in disturbed areas and survive floods better than other snails by burrowing into the mud. They attach themselves quickly to boats, anchors, waders, and fishing equipment for transportation to other lakes – as well using pets and wildlife like the legs of wading birds.  Mud snails can live out of water for up to two weeks by closing their shells. And they can even survive traveling through the innards of fish or birds and make it out alive 50-80% of the time! We are talking about a tough competitor here in our waterways!

And Mud Snails Can Be Devastating

Emily Bovee and Kennedy Phillips studying New Zealand Mud Snails in the Au Sable River, photo by Jeremy Geist

Emily Bovee and Kennedy Phillips, researchers from Oakland University,  studying the presence of New Zealand Mud Snails in the Au Sable River

There’s evidence that trout in the Au Sable River eat New Zealand Mud Snails, but they can’t get much nourishment from them. Their shells are too hard for most fish to crush or digest. Hence the nutrients in them don’t nourish fish like native snails or other macroinvertebrates in a river would. And to add more injury, these snails eat the very organic matter on which our native species depend, the species which efficiently nourish fish and other creatures.  New Zealand Mud Snails, for example, eat the most tender parts of algae, but leave the less palatable parts for other aquatic creatures. Thanks a lot!

What to Do? Practical Steps to Prevent Hitchhikers

nz mudsnail tiny 2 by tim quinnel cc by-nc

The size of New Zealand Mud Snails means they can be easily missed on equipment! Photo by Tim Quinnell (CC-BY-NC)

Sadly, as is often the case with invasive species, there is no hope of ever eliminating these minute snails. They have no natural predators in North America. And if we tried to physically remove them but missed even one, we’d have hundreds of thousands again in a matter of years as the creatures clone and clone again.

So the goal now is to all pull together and STOP THEIR SPREAD! Here’s where you come in. The Oakland University researchers made these recommendations:

  • Clean, Drain and Dry All Boats, Watercraft and their Trailers – You’ll need to drain them for 24 hours before you go to another water system. Drain your live well, your bilge and dry your motor. Remember! These snails are tiny and easily missed! Look carefully!
  • Clean Your Waders, Nets, etc.  Go away from the water’s edge (near your car for instance) and spray your gear liberally with Formula 409, which right now is the only substance found to kill 100 % of these little critters. Don’t get any 409 in the water system! The surfactant that makes it work on the snails is lethal to many creatures. Be sure to brush/scour the soles of your boots or waders. Rinse the equipment with water, dry them, and wait 24 hours before going into another stream. Again, remember to check carefully for these tiny snails!
  • Educate Others about These Procedures – Spread the word to other people in your life who fish. These snails prefer rivers where sunlight can reach the mud and grow algae. But they have been found in lakes as well, since rivers, of course, empty into lakes. Anglers can’t protect our waterways if they don’t really understand the dangers associated with these snails.
  • Volunteer to Help – You can provide a water sample from a river in which you fish and submit it easily to the Aquatic Ecology Lab.  Find out how by emailing Emily Bovee, one of the researchers from O. (See the researchers’ emails below.)  A DNA test can discover whether mud snails are present in the waterways where you fish or boat. That helps researchers know where to do their work and allows conservationists to offer information on local signage and to strategically locate cleaning kiosks for fishing gear.

It’s Not Fun to Think about Invasive Species…but We Really Need To Do It. 

Ausable River by Jeremy Geist

Au Sable River, photo by Jeremy Geist

I will readily admit that learning about invasive species is not as uplifting as learning about the restoration of forests, prairies and native species in general.   Non-native species often end up dominating the landscape and thereby diminishing the rich diversity of our natural areas.  And often the story of invasives does not have a clear ending, much less a happy one.  For though we can work at controlling them, in many cases, we will never be entirely rid of them.  

It seems that our best hope is to get educated about  invasive species and then pass on that understanding to others in the hope that we can dramatically limit the damage that they  do.   We can participate in citizen science projects.  We can choose to be informed and careful about inadvertently spreading invasive plants, fungi or creatures when we garden, fish, hike or choose our pets.  We can plant and nurture native flowers, grasses and trees. Seems do-able, doesn’t it?  In fact, we’re already doing it here in Oakland Township through our stewardship program.  And really,  it seems like the least we can do to honor the diverse beauty and generosity of the natural areas which have supported us for thousands of years.  

Need More Information?

Water sample kit, photo by Emily Bovee, OU researcher

A water sample kit to determine whether NZ Mud Snails are in the rivers you fish. Photo by Jeremy Geist.

To participate in DNA water sampling, contact the research team at Oakland University’s Aquatic Ecology Lab by contacting Oakland University researcher Emily Bovee  at this email address:  enbovee@oakland.edu.

As well as attending the excellent workshop, I found these two websites very useful.

‘Tis the Season – the ONLY Season – When It’s Safe to Prune Your Oaks!

/ Cam Mannino / 2 Comments

(Click on photos to enlarge; hover cursor for captions.)

Notice something odd about the three photos above? Right. They all show dead trees. And it turns out they are all Michigan oaks – in a neighborhood, in a park and in a natural area. Oak Wilt, an invasive fungus deadly to oaks, has killed these mighty giants in Minnesota, Wisconsin and throughout Michigan, including Oakland County. Researchers like Dr. Monique Sakalidis at Michigan State are working to more thoroughly understand oak wilt and how to prevent it because at the moment, there is no cure once a red oak is infected. The good news is that most new infections can be prevented by not damaging or pruning oaks during warm weather (April to October). So we all need to know how to protect our oaks!

The Oakland County CISMA (Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area) arranged a workshop with Oak Wilt specialist, Julie Stachecki, who is also an ISA certified arborist (International Society of Arboriculture) and President of the Arboriculture Society of Michigan. She packed a lot of information into her two hour presentation! We learned how this dangerous fungus is spread and how to protect the oaks of Oakland Township. Here are some important basics and links to more detailed information. (All of the photos in this blog were taken by Julie Stachecki, except the one on the left above by Dr. Dave Roberts and two photos of oak leaves below by Cam Mannino.)

The Danger is Real…and Some of the Photos Aren’t Pretty

Oak wilt is caused by an exotic fungus (Bretziella fagacearum) that likely arrived in North America around 1900. Oak wilt can kill a tree in the Red Oak group (northern red oak, pin oak, black oak, and scarlet oak) in 6-8 weeks! Species in the White Oak group (bur oak, post oak, white oak, and swamp white oak) can also be infected but may survive, or just die more slowly. Red oaks have bristles at the tips of the leaf lobes, while white oaks have rounded lobes with no bristle. There is currently no cure for oak wilt, so prevention is crucial! Don’t injure your oak trees between March and October!

Overland Spread by Beetles

The oak wilt fungus is spread by native sap beetles (fam. Nitidulidae) that are attracted by the scent of any wound on an oak tree – for example, those caused by lawnmowers, pruning or broken limbs. These beetles can spread the fungus several miles in one year!

The beetles can arrive within 10 minutes of wounding! So prevention is critical. When wounds occur, sealing them with a pruning sealant or latex paint needs to happen quickly. The beetles are active from mid-March through October, but there are greater numbers of them from mid-March to July.

If the beetles have been feeding on the oak wilt fungus in an infected tree, they can carry the fungal spores to nearby healthy but wounded trees. Once they land on a wound with the spores on their bodies, a red oak tree will die in 6-8 weeks.

Local Spread through the Roots

Oak wilt can also spread to healthy trees through the roots of infected oaks.  Oak trees, particularly red oaks,  are connected underground by root grafts even if they are as much as 100 feet apart. The fungus will keep spreading throughout the root systems and can kill every oak tree in a neighborhood, park or forest until the root connections run out or are professionally severed

How to Protect Your Trees

Prevention is the key to protecting your oak trees. Don’t prune or injure your oak trees between March and October! Only prune oak trees between November and February (late fall or winter).

  • If the bark of your oak tree is injured in any way (e.g. by lawnmower, pruning in the growing season, wind damage) from March to October, immediately seal the wound with tree wound paint, latex paint, or clear shellac. That should keep beetles from landing on exposed tissue and protect your trees. If you can’t reach the area, call an Oak Wilt specialist.  (See below.)
  • DO NOT MOVE FIREWOOD.  It’s one of the significant ways in which oak wilt spreads.
  • An Oak Wilt Qualified Specialist can’t save your tree once infected,  but he or she can take measures to try to protect the oak trees nearby.  See the contact information for the Michigan Oak Wilt Coalition below.
  • Avoid using tree crews that are not qualified as oak wilt specialists. Confirm any diagnosis of oak wilt with an expert. Many different stresses and less lethal pests can cause symptoms of concern on oak trees. You don’t want to make treatments or cut down a tree unnecessarily.

Signs of Oak Wilt Infection

Fallen leaves from an Oak Wilt-infected tree in mid-summer. (J. Stachecki)

In June, July or August, leaves discolor to a dull olive green or turn partially brown, often near the top of the tree first. Discolored leaves then wilt from the top of the tree downward and additional leaves become brown or bronzed. Rapid leaf drop occurs as the disease progresses.  Fallen leaves are usually brown at the tips and margins and sometimes green at the base. (See photo above.)

The year after a tree is killed by oak wilt (but sometimes that fall), fungal pressure pads may form beneath the bark of the tree. The growing pressure pad pushes on the bark above it, often forming small cracks that allow beetles to access the fungus.

If You Think You Have an Oak Wilt Infected Tree:

  • Confirm any suspicion of oak wilt with an expert. Dead leaves aren’t enough since other diseases can cause similar symptoms.
  • Don’t Cut it Down Yourself!  You may make the problem worse by forcing the fungus more quickly into the roots, infecting nearby oak trees with the oak wilt fungus.
  • Again, contact an Oak Wilt Qualified Specialist.  Don’t be tempted to use just any arborist or tree service.  Specialists have passed an exam on identification and management of Oak Wilt and are required to be either an ISA Certified Arborist, Certified Forester or have a 4 year degree in a related field.  They can  provide you with the best way to protect other oaks in your yard, your neighbors’ yards, or a forest or park nearby from this deadly fungus. Management options may include tree removal, tightly covering infected firewood piles, preventative injections of nearby non-symptomatic trees, and trenching around infected trees to prevent spread through the roots to nearby trees.

Keeping the “Oak” in “Oakland”

We all know that we want to preserve the oaks for which Oakland Township and Oakland County were named. To do so, we need to take the Oak Wilt threat seriously and work as a community to prevent its spread. Even one infected tree with oaks nearby can spread and kill all the trees connected to its roots. That could potentially affect whole neighborhoods, whole parks, whole forests. So the first step is to educate ourselves and our neighbors so that we can act quickly. First, prevent any injury to oak trees between March and October. Second, immediately seal any wounds that do occur between March to October. Finally, if you suspect a tree with oak wilt, quickly hire experts to confirm the oak wilt diagnosis and to keep the infection from spreading.  So please read the information on the Michigan Oak Wilt website and tell your neighbors about how to prevent the spread of oak wilt!  We can do this!

Many thanks to Julie Stachecki of the Michigan Oak Wilt Coalition for generously sharing her photos and her time.

Resources for More Information and Help:

  • Website of the Michigan Oak Wilt Coalition for more detailed information and to find an Oak Wilt certified specialist arborist: michiganoakwilt.org
  • For reporting suspected cases of Oak Wilt: email DNR-FRD-Forest-Health@michigan.gov
  • Midwest Invasive Species Information Network: http://www.misin.msu.edu