Field Notes: June 28, 2013

New phragmites shoot and roots, 13 days after cutting and planting

I have been gone on vacation for little more than a week, and now that I am back, it is time to get busy with planting.  You may have noticed clumps of plants appearing here and there around the undeveloped parts of the lake.  These are likely phragmites plants, which make up the cane beds.  I have begun several experimental plantings by cutting stems from wetland plants and poking them into the lake bottom.  It may seem strange, and it may not work, but after 13 days the first cuttings are already sending out roots and shoots.  Whether or not these can produce a healthy enough root system to survive the winter remains to be seen, but even if mildly successful this could be an inexpensive tool to establish new beds or expand existing ones.  

Water is really too high to begin planting bulrush plants, but there is no guarantee the water will go down, so I’m slowly planting if hope that conditions will improve.  Our custom grown plants should have a fair chance at making it because they are between 3-4 feet tall.  Planting is never comfortable, but in deep water it is a real strain, and if a person is under 6 foot they need a snorkel with the current conditions. 

It appears that there will be no nesting on the rafts this year, but we have learned a lot from the experience, and plan on making some modifications to the rafts to make them more attractive to the birds.  The artificial island on Lake Butte des Morts had a record number of nest with eggs this year, so at least there should be more birds to attract in this part of the state.  

Emergent Planting Report

The emergent planting is a success going into winter.  We will now have to wait and see how they handle ice, snow, muskrats and the high water of spring.   We will lose some plants, but overall they are looking good as the lake freezes.  A report is available with many photos of the plantings.  Click REPORT to see it.

Site 2a the most successful planting so far.  

Lake District Installing Living Fish Hatcheries

The Lake Puckaway Protection and Rehabilitation District if fighting the loss of important bluegill, yellow perch spawning habitat by planting emergent bulrush species and creeping spikerush.  Shortly after ice out these areas will become a living fish hatchery as yellow perch lay their eggs among the stems, and northern pike attach their eggs to the stems. Late in spring male bluegills, and pumpkinseeds will make and defend shallow nests where females will lay their eggs.  Come fall the living fish hatchery will be visited by mallards, teal, coots and many other species of waterfowl as they relish the seeds dropped by the bulrush plants.

Last planting completed August 5th! More information coming soon.

2011 Emergent Plant Stabilization (EPS) Survey

Yours truly, counting emergent plant stems,
in this case Stiff Arrowhead (Sagittaria rigida)

Once upon a time the East Basin of Lake Puckaway was nothing more than a river channel in a sea of wild rice and bulrushes that concealed the lake below.  Also in the shallows grew arrowheads, cane (Phragmites), sedges, and cattails.  These are all emergent plants, which means a major portion of the plant sticks out of the water.  These plants are critically important to many fish and wildlife.  Northern pike only attach their eggs to vertical stems, so without this type of vegetation, there could be no natural reproduction of northern pike.  Emergent and other vegetation also have a profound effect on water quality by holding sediment in place, dampening wave action, and several other mechanisms.  In parts of a lake, the water clarity may be less than a foot, while in a healthy bed of aquatic plants, the water is much clearer.

Clear water in the aquatic plant bed, Western Lake Puckaway.
Mid-lake the  water clarity was less than a foot.

Starting with the construction of the dam at Princeton, water level management began to have a slow but steady negative effect on emergent plants.  Coupled with poor agricultural practices and shoreland use, this eventually led us to a greater than 80% loss in emergent vegetation.  The Emergent Plant Stabilization project recognizes the importance of this habitat and the need to halt and reverse these losses.

As part a study to measure the current state of and recent trends in emergent vegetation, surveys are conducted on an annual basis since 2010.  Derek Kavanaugh and I surveyed vegetation on August 25th this year.  The tools are simple: a one-meter sampling square made from PVC pipe, something to measure water depth, and a field guide to aquatic and wetland plants.  Together, we estimated the total coverage of floating-leaf plants, the coverage of submergent plants, and counted the stems of emergent plants across three study areas.  A comparison of 2011 and 2010 will appear in a future post.

Derek is using the GPS in the LPPRD's work boat.

Emergent Plants in the Survey

Stiff arrowhead, Sagittaria rigida

Soft-stem bulrush, Schoenoplectus acutus 

Giant Reed (cane), Phragmites australis

Pulling the boat through shallow water to another survey point.