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<\/a><\/p>\nAs a result, Phragmites chokes out our native vegetation and in many areas it’s so thick and expansive that it resembles Phragmites monoculture.\u00a0 This is one of my favorite spots at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge in mid-June – as you can see, Phragmites has essentially displaced every native plant species.<\/p>\n
And speaking of invasives, the purplish color on the mountains in the background is\u00a0Cheat Grass – another extremely problematic non-native species.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Here’s the same view the following April, before the new green Phragmites shoots have begun to appear.\u00a0 To my eye these dense reed stands are often strikingly beautiful and can provide appealing settings for photography but the price to be paid is a steep one – degraded wetlands and coastal areas where native animals and plants are crowded out, reduced access to shorelines for human recreational activities and fire hazards from massive amounts of dried vegetation.<\/p>\n Wetland managers go to great lengths in attempting to control phragmites – using methods such as\u00a0deliberate burning, herbicides, cutting, mowing and\u00a0disking but their efforts are largely a losing proposition,\u00a0 Phragmites spreads rapidly as their rhizomes (horizontal roots) grow more than 6 feet every year and can be longer than 60 feet.\u00a0 When broken mechanically (plowing for example) each rhizome piece can grow into a new plant.\u00a0 And each plant produces roughly 2000 seeds every year.<\/p>\n Managers also run grazing\u00a0cattle onto the wetlands in an effort to control the phrags – a practice I detest (though I do understand its necessity).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n To be fair, some birds do use Phragmites as habitat.\u00a0 Several species of swallows often perch in phrags in large numbers, some waterfowl nest in the reed stands and other birds use phrags for cover but compared to our native wetland plant species the habitat provided by phragmites is much degraded.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n All that said, I really enjoy flight shots of birds\u00a0with Phragmites in the background.\u00a0 Here the phrags are covered by an early morning frost and the Barn Owl is hunting the edges of the reed stand for voles.<\/p>\n But\u00a0my experience last week at Farmington Bay WMA reminded me of another reason why phrags can be inconvenient, at least for photographers (and anyone fond of breathing…)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n It was a moderately windy day at the bay and the puffy and light Phragmites seeds were thick in the air, blowing everywhere.\u00a0 They got in our nostrils and our eyes, making both breathing and seeing a challenge.\u00a0 The interior of my pickup is still covered in them – particularly (for some reason) the headliner.\u00a0 This juvenile Red-tailed Hawk was kiting in the wind and gave me a look back from too far away for great image quality but all those fuzzy\u00a0white spots in the background? – you guessed it, Phragmites seeds.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n