PROVO, Utah (AP) - Officials are trying new techniques to get rid of an invasive plant species called phragmites from the shores of Utah Lake, such as spraying herbicides and smashing the plants instead of burning them.
A new program is also being piloted this summer, in which cows will be fenced into acres of phragmite growth in order to graze it down, the Daily Herald in Provo reported this week.
While it doesn’t completely eradicate the weeds, it does allow for native plants to come back in its place. It’s also full of protein, and good for the cows, said Utah Lake Commission Executive Director Eric Ellis.
The tall (15 feet, or about 5 meters), perennial grass typically grows in dense thickets that displace native plants, greedily intake water from the lake and take over shorelines that become inaccessible to humans, Ellis said.
“It’s just a hardy plant that’s really quick to adapt to its environment,” Ellis said. “It makes it really hard to get rid of.”
The state started a phragmites eradication program in 2006, focused on eliminating to the extent possible phragmites around Utah’s two largest lakes: The Great Salt Lake and Utah Lake.
Utah Lake has about 13 square miles (34 square kilometers) of phragmites along its 75-mile (121-kilometer) shoreline, Ellis said. About 7 square miles (18 square kilometers) have been prioritized for treatment in the most populated areas of shoreline from Saratoga Springs down to Springville.
Ellis said it’s unlikely that phragmites will ever be completely eliminated from Utah Lake.
But some newly-acquired equipment called “Marsh Masters” can access far larger areas of phragmite habitat than old equipment, called land tamers, which could not access 80% of the areas in need of crushing. Several funding partners came together to purchase two of the machines, which are being used for the first time in the 2018 to 2019 crushing cycle, according to the Utah Lake Commission’s website.
Not only can the Marsh Masters access more of the phragmites, they also have mowers on the back that mulch up the phragmites as they’re mowing, Ellis said. The latest research suggests this is the best way to allow native vegetation to come back.
“I think with the new equipment we have now, that we will be able to see a huge difference on shoreline restoration work,” Ellis said.
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Information from: The Daily Herald, http://www.heraldextra.com
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