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Index of Subjects Hi Fred & All, Some decades ago the east coast had this "dire problem" of purple loosestrife. The seeds of this plant float in water so it spread down ditches rapidly and the ditches became full of this plant. This was perceived to be a problem ! When in fact free erosion control was really a blessing. Phragmites does very well in saline or fresh soils or swamps where nothing else can grow well. In the Netherlands it has been used for many generations to ripen polders recently partioned from the sea. Because the plants has much aerenchyma in the rhizomes it can prosper in anaerobic, structureless, undrainable soil. And decay of these rhizomes overtime gradually generates structured, fertile, drainable soil. In NS it has become far more widespread than it was 70 years ago due to mowing of 100 series ditches and I presume accidental spreading of rhizomes on machinery parts. No doubt the Tantramar marshes have a problem; an ocean which keeps rising. Phragmites will hold soil briefly while the powers that be decide whether or not to continue protecting rail and highway links with NB. But a plant which buys even a bit of time should be welcome. In view of the Genuine Problem; man made Climate change and the need to switch from fossil fuels to renewables ASAP, I wonder about the potential for power generation across the Isthmus of Chignecto. Bay of Fundy has a very large tidal range. The Northumberland Strait has a much smaller range. The head would be small but I wonder if this has been investigated. I understand that a very large ice shelf in NW Antarctica is being undercut by ocean currents and record high temperatures there. The land end of this shelf slows the flow of glacial ice into the ocean. If this shelf were to break free a rise of the ocean of 100 feet over 100 years is projected. Worrying about this will not slow temperature rise down south. But appreciating that climate change can be slowed by leaving fossil fuel in the ground, and giving the transition to renewables top priority will. YT, DW, Kentville YT, DW, Kentville On 6/15/2020 12:08 PM, Frederick W. Schueler wrote: > Maritimers, > > Listening to the discussion of the Tantramar marshes on the Sunday > Edition yesterday, and not hearing any discussion of invasive European > Phragmites there, I'm forwarding this warning from 2004, and from 2010 > - > https://karstaddailypaintings.blogspot.com/2010/10/view-from-beausejour.html > - in the hopes that there's some possibility of action. > > from the 2010 report: "This is the one place in the Maritimes where > the invasive European Phragmites australis subspecies australis has > been reported, so we are interested in seeing how conditions here > compare to what we'd observed elsewhere in New Brunswick and Nova > Scotia... we drove the busy road across the marshes both ways, > waypointing stands and taking representative specimens... > > "The first thing we noticed was that the stands were very distinctly > divided into native-like and invasive-like kinds: we counted 11 alien > and 7 native stands, and only 1 that we called ambiguous, though the > natives graded out into little whisps, and we doubtless missed some of > these which an observer on foot could have waypointed. The most > striking feature of this difference was the persistent green foliage > of the aliens, in contrast to the shriveled get-ready-for-winter brown > of the natives (one often sees that alien plants from NW Europe retain > green leaves far longer than native plants do). > > "Those on NatureNS will remember that throughout Nova Scotia we were > perplexed by the intermediacy and confusing morphology of the majority > of the Phragmites stands we sampled there: at Tantramar there was no > ambiguity, and the natives didn't look much different from the ones we > see in Ontario". > > Those of us in Ontario have seen how completely the invasive > Phragmites can take over wide areas, and really wish action could be > taken in the Maritimes before the task becomes impossible. > > fred. > ==================================================== > > -------- Forwarded Message -------- > Subject: Catling & company on invasive Phragmites in the Maritimes (& > Nfld) > Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2004 10:39:08 -0500 > From: Frederick W. Schueler <bckcdb@istar.ca> > Organization: Bishops Mills Natural History Centre > To: NATURENB@LISTSERV.UNB.CA <NATURENB@LISTSERV.UNB.CA> > > New Brunswickers, > > I urge you to read the appended article (which has just come out in > BEN), very carefully, and to take action to suppress stands of the alien > race. All you need to do is to drive along the eastern shore of NB, and > then drive along the shore roads of New Jersey (solid alien Phragmites > as far as the eye can see), to envisage just what you don't want your > province to become. The Fundy shore is more different from New Jersey, > so the geomorphic comparison isn't so close, but solid stands of > Phragmites would be equally undesireable there. > > fred. > ------------------------------------------------------------ > ------------------------------------------------------------ > BOTANICAL ELECTRONIC NEWS No. 324, March 16, 2004 > <aceska@victoria.tc.ca> Victoria, B.C. > ----------------------------------------------------------- > Dr. A. Ceska, P.O.Box 8546, Victoria, B.C. Canada V8W 3S2 > ----------------------------------------------------------- > > STATUS OF THE ALIEN RACE OF COMMON REED (_PHRAGMITES AUSTRALIS_) > IN THE CANADIAN MARITIME PROVINCES > From: Paul M. Catling*, Gisele Mitrow*, Lynn Black*, Susan > Carbyn** > * Agriculture and AgriFood Canada, > Environmental Health, Biodiversity, > Saunders Bldg., C.E.F., Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0C6 > catlingp@agr.gc.ca > **Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada > Environmental Health, Biodiversity > 32 Main Street, Kentville, Nova Scotia B4N 1J5 > > An alien race of Common Reed (presumably the European _Phrag- > mites australis_ (Cav.) Trin. ssp. _australis_) has been rapidly > spreading along roadsides and invading and dominating wetlands > in parts of southern Ontario and Quebec since the early 1990s > (Schueler 2000a, b, Robichaud & Catling 2003, Catling et al. > 2003). The i