Spartina anglica

Work is great. I love my job.

Last week I spent three days roaming the local mudflats in search of Spartina anglica (English Cordgrass) an invasive, perennial, salt grass. Spartina is a threat to the biodiversity and productivity of our local estuary, due to their aggressive and opportunistic characteristics. Without any natural predators or disease, these plants quickly out-compete native mudflat species and can convert and entire area into a monotypic stand. Unfortunately, once this occurs it becomes nearly impossible to eradicate from an area.


Spartina
Originally uploaded by Dovekie.

Fortunately, Spartina was first found locally in 2003 and since then local groups (including the one I work for) have been working together to "nip it in the bud" so to speak.

Last week we walked the flats with handheld GPS units and mapped the location of Spartina clones, and in the coming months we will take to the flats and manually remove these weeds. The clumps larger than 3m will be removed using an excavator and buried far beneath the surface.

It's satisfying to know that the areas where these efforts were concentrated last year, showed very little re-growth.

It is possible - we CAN beat Spartina and I'm proud to be a part of it.

Tags: /Spartina/Spartina Busters/Invasive Species/Invasive/Stewardship/work/