Long Point Peninsula Invasive Phragmites Management Outcomes
Phragmites management efforts benefited plant diversity, fish habitat, aerial insectivore birds, and more!
Priority Places for Species at Risk
The federal government, in collaboration with the provinces and territories, agreed to the implementation of the Pan-Canadian Approach to Transforming Species at Risk Conservation in Canada in 2018.
This approach shifts from a single-species approach to one that focuses on multiple species and ecosystems. Efforts are being focused in areas with high biodiversity and concentrations of species at risk, known as priority places.
There are 12 priority places across Canada. In each priority place, the federal and provincial or territorial governments are working with Indigenous Peoples and other partners to develop integrated conservation implementation plans. These plans identify actions to address the greatest threats to species. They are funded and implemented by multiple government and non-government organizations and enable all partners to work together.
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Ontario's Priority Place
In 2017, Long Point Walsingham Forest (LPWF) was selected by Environment Climate Change Canada - Canadian Wildlife Service (ECCC-CWS) as Ontario’s priority place. LPWF is situated in Southwestern Ontario along the northern shores of Lake Erie in Norfolk County.
LPWF provides habitat for 88 federally listed Species at Risk.
Long Point
The Long Point wetland complex which includes the Long Point peninsula, Turkey Point and Big Creek marshes, is a globally important stopover areas for migratory birds. It is internationally recognized as a Ramsar site , an Important Bird Area , a Key Biodiversity Area , an international Monarch Butterfly Reserve, and a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve . Much of the wetland complex is protected as Provincial Park and National Wildlife Area.
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Big Creek National Wildlife Area
The Big Creek National Wildlife Area (NWA) is located at the base of the Long Point peninsula. It is composed of the Big Creek Unit (right) and Hahn Marsh Unit (left). The Big Creek Unit is predominately marsh habitat, and the Hahn Marsh Unit is composed of a variety of habitats including wooded swamp, lowland deciduous forest, shrub thicket, marsh, sand dune and beach.
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Long Point National Wildlife Area
The Long Point National Wildlife Area (NWA) is located on the Long Point peninsula and consists of two separate units – the Long Point Unit (right) and the Thoroughfare Unit (left). The Long Point Unit is located near the tip of the peninsula and is composed of marsh, lowland and upland forest, savannah, dunes and beaches. The Thoroughfare Unit is situated within the Inner Bay portion of Long Point Bay and is composed of cattail marsh, sand dunes and beach.
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Turkey Point Provincial Park
There are two provincial parks in the Long Point Walsingham Forest: Turkey Point Provincial Park located on Lake Erie east of Highway 10...
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Long Point Provincial Park
... and Long Point Provincial Park located on the west end of the Long Point sand spit between the Big Creek NWA and the Long Point NWA Thoroughfare Unit.
The Long Point Walsingham Forest is situated upon the Treaty Lands and Territory of the Mississaugas and the Credit First Nation and the Traditional Territory of the Haudenosaunee and Huron-Wendat.
Threats to Biodiversity
The number of species at risk (SAR) is indicated by the intensity of pink shading, whereas the occurrence of invasive plants is indicated by the intensity of the blue. Purple is where they overlap, suggesting SAR are exposed to invasive plants.
Across the Carolinian Zone, areas with high species at risk occurrences are also threatened by the presence of invasive plants. Targeting these areas for restoration and management is a critical step for conservation of species at risk. However, an integrated and cohesive plan is required to set and achieve management goals.
Integrated Conservation Implementation Plan (2018-2023)
In 2018, the LPWF Conservation Implementation Plan (CIP) was developed with input from over 23 organizations using the adaptive management framework Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation. Strategies in the plan aim to conserve and restore ecosystems and address their critical threats. There are seven goals identified within the LPWF CIP. The goal related to Long Point is "by 2025, 90% of the vegetation in the coastal wetland, beach, and coastal dune ecosystems are native". Two strategies in the CIP contribute to achievement of this goal by addressing the threat of Phragmites invasions.
STRATEGY 1: Plan and conduct site specific management of Phragmites australis at the Long Point coastal wetlands.
STRATEGY 2: Plan and conduct Phragmites australis management within the Big Creek watershed to reduce spread into the Long Point coastal wetlands.
The vision for the LPWF priority place is to create healthy, resilient, and connected ecosystems that support biodiversity, productive landscapes, and a thriving community.
Invasive Phragmites produces dense reed beds. The canes can stay standing for years after they have died.
About 25% of all of Ontario's species at risk are directly threatened by invasive Phragmites! Some groups, like turtles, are more sensitive than others.
Invasive species displace native species, decrease biodiversity, and disrupt natural ecosystem processes. There are many invasive species, including terrestrial and aquatic plants and animals, that threaten biodiversity in LPWF.
Non-native Phragmites australis is one of the most concerning invasive species in LPWF. It is an invasive perennial wetland plant that has spread rapidly across the Great Lakes basin.
Growing up to 6 m in height, Phragmites out-competes native wetland plants, resulting in expansive monoculture stands of limited value to wildlife. Phragmites impacts breeding and foraging habitats, restricts wildlife movement and reduces the availability of open water.
In 2018 the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) developed the Big Creek Watershed Implementation Plan, a multi-phased plan for comprehensive Phragmites management in areas of the Big Creek watershed that drain to the coastal wetlands. Guidance on the development of this plan was provided by a subcommittee of the Long Point Phragmites Action Alliance (LPPAA). With priority place funding support from ECCC-CWS, NCC began implementing the plan in 2019. In 2021, the program expanded across all of Norfolk County and in 2024 it expanded into the wider Carolinian Zone priority place.
Integration of Best Management Practices for Phragmites suppression
The Nature Conservancy of Canada and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry initiated the coordinated management of Phragmites on provincial and private lands using herbicide at Long Point in 2016. Between 2016 and 2018, they managed close to 1250 ha on Crown and privately owned lands in the region. The Canadian Wildlife Service initiated Phragmites management at three pilot sites on the two NWAs in 2019 and has continued management annually with over 700 ha managed from 2019-2024.
The objective of this work was to maintain Phragmites cover in the Long Point coastal wetlands to less than 10% of the vegetative cover. The objective for the Big Creek and Long Point NWAs was to manage 90% of the 2018 extent of Phragmites by 2025. This goal has been achieved!
Aerial imagery of the Phragmites invasion extent at Long Point before the herbicide treatment (Heather Braun 2019).
Image of Phragmites invasion in a Long Point unit monitoring plot in 2019 (left) and the same monitoring plot in 2023 (right), after herbicide treatment.
Drag the slider to advance the timeline. The extent of initial mapped Phragmites is shown in green. Note that not all parts of the Long Point peninsula were mapped. Once herbicide treatment begins in the fall of 2016, the areas treated with herbicide appear as pink. Some pink occurs outside the areas that are green because not all the Phragmites was mapped before treatment began. The bar chart on the right shows the cumulative area of Phragmites treated each year.
The Long Point Phragmites Action Alliance (LPPAA), formed in 2015, has led the coordinated approach to managing invasive Phragmites at Long Point. The intent of this Alliance is to develop a united and well-planned management approach for controlling Phragmites that is effective, efficient and environmentally responsible. The LPPAA is a community group made up of a wide range of organizations including agricultural organizations, hunting and fishing clubs, cottage associations, and environmental groups with a common interest in eradicating the invasive plant Phragmites.
Groups included in the LPPAA. Not imaged: Lee Brown Marsh, Long Point Company, Simcoe Probus Club, The Bayou Club, Turkey Point Property Owners Association, and West Elgin Phragmites Working Group.
The success of the Phragmites management at Long Point can be attributed to the strong collaborative nature of the effort. Numerous organizations and private landowners have been involved, contributing funding, equipment and labour.
Positive management outcomes
Over the 9 years that we monitored the outcomes of Phragmites management in Long Point, the large-scale removal of Phragmites showcased numerous ecological benefits. Below, we highlight the impact these restoration efforts had on plant diversity and the dominance of native plants, bird and fish communities, as well as changes to carbon sequestration and storage dynamics.
Suppression efficacy of Phragmites control efforts
Twenty plots were established in Crown Marsh, situated between the Big Creek National Wildlife Area on the west and the Long Point Provincial Park on the east, in August of 2016 in high density Phragmites patched that were to be treated by the aerial application of herbicide in September 2016.
The plant species in each of the plots were surveyed in early August or late July from 2016 to 2024 to track changes in the vegetation community composition as Phragmites was removed from the marsh.
The weighted mean coefficient of conservatism can be used to assess plant recovery over time. Coefficients of conservatism are values of 0 to 10 assigned by expert botanists to each plant species ranking the likelihood they would occur in a given unaltered habitat. A value of 10 indicates a species that is found in undisturbed habitats and is unlikely to be in degraded areas such as those invaded with Phragmites. A value of 0 indicates a non-native species.
See the graph below demonstrates how the weighted mean coefficient of conservatism increased after Phragmites treatment in Crown Marsh in 2016. Notice how the values in treated plots resemble those of reference conditions (areas that were never invaded by Phragmites).
Weighted mean coefficients of conservatism of control, treated, and reference plots from 2016 to 2024. The floristic quality of areas treated with herbicide improved during the first three years after Phragmites management and is now indistinguishable from the floristic quality of reference areas.
Species dominance over time
Let's look at the dominant species in the surveyed plots:
Click the play button on the map to the right to see the change in plot dominance through time from 2016 to 2024. Here we can see the plots transition from Phragmites-dominated to invader-dominated in the first year after herbicide treatment. Over the next three years, we see the plots transition to mostly native-dominated that is sustained for the duration of monitoring.
Images of monitoring plots: Phragmites-dominated (top left), invader-dominated (top right), no vegetation (bottom left), native-dominated (bottom right).
To learn more about the efficacy of herbicide treatments in Long Point, Ontario explore the links below:
Increased forage quality for waterfowl
Wetlands in the Great Lakes region harbor rich plant diversity creating ideal nesting, migration, and feeding conditions for waterfowl. In particular, the Long Point and Big Creek National Wildlife Areas are essential wetland habitats in southern Ontario that serve as stopover sites for 17 species of waterfowl.
Phragmites invasions have potentially reduced the forage quality in these wetlands due to their ability to displace native plants. However, the positive changes in the vegetation community composition from Phragmites suppression efforts may have improved the waterfowl forage quality.
To understand the effect of Phragmites suppression efforts on waterfowl forage quality, 48 transects were established in the Long Point and Big Creek National Wildlife Areas. The map on the right displays the invaded (areas that are invaded by Phragmites), reference (areas that were never invaded by Phragmites), and treated (areas of Phragmites that were treated with herbicide) transect locations in Big Creek National Wildlife Area.
The plant species identified on the transects were given a value of a feed quality coefficient derived by expert opinions, with values ranging from 1 to 4. A value of 1 represents poor forage value and a value of 4 represents excellent forage value.
Example of monitoring transects: invaded (top) depicts a monoculture of Phragmites with a forage coefficient of 1, treated (middle) depicts secondary-invasive plants with low forage coefficients but greater diversity than the monoculture, and reference (bottom) depicts diverse plant species with higher forage coefficients.
After sampling the transects in August 2022 and August 2023, feed quality coefficients were paired with each identified plant species. We compared the waterfowl forage quality 'index' of each transect type by using a formula that calculates the weighted means of the coefficients on each transect.
In the first year after herbicide treatment, values were similar to invaded areas where Phragmites was still present. If Phragmites never invaded these wetlands, the waterfowl forage quality would be similar to reference values. In the second year after treatment, the forage quality begins to increase getting closer to the reference conditions and signaling that forage quality for waterfowl is improving in the herbicide-treated areas.
The forage value of the plant community in Phragmites-invaded areas is low compared to in reference areas. The forage quality improved during the first two years after Phragmites management.
More information on waterfowl forage quality can be found here: Waterfowl forage quality increases following herbicide treatment.
Swamp Rose-mallow distribution
Swamp Rose-mallow (Hibiscus moscheutos) is an at-risk marsh flower whose habitat range falls within the Long Point and Big Creek National Wildlife Areas. Its conservation status is designated as Special Concern. Many observations of Swamp Rose-mallow have been within proximity or within Phragmites patches that historically dominated these wetlands.
In 2020, patches of Swamp Rose-mallow were surveyed in Big Creek. Surveys included counts of the number of stems, flowers, and buds every year, up until 2024.
Positive metrics, such as the increase in Swamp Rose-mallow stems was observed after the 2020, 2021, and 2023 herbicide treatments to Phragmites in Big Creek National Wildlife Area.
The number of Swamp Rose-mallow plants increased year-after-year following Phragmites management.
In addition, the extent area of the Swamp Rose-mallow observations each year began to increase as the herbicide treatment suppressed Phragmites and increased potential habitat area for Swamp Rose-mallow to establish in.
The area of wetland where Swamp Rose-mallow grew increased year-after-year following Phragmites management.
Click the play button on the map to the right to see the changes in Swamp Rose-mallow observations between 2020 and 2024 in the Big Creek National Wildlife Area.
Notice how the extent area stretches to the west side of Old Creek after herbicide treatment in 2021, showcasing patches that are observed in 2023 and 2024.
Increases in fish habitat
The wetlands of the Long Point NWA provide important habitat for species-at-risk fish including grass pickerel, spotted gar, lake chubsucker and the pugnose shiner. These species at risk are known to use the shallow marsh environment in the LPNWA, that prior to 2016, were invaded by Phragmites, which reduced the area of suitable fish habitat.
Phragmites management is intended to restore aquatic habitats, by increasing open water and providing conditions necessary for the re-establishment of native vegetation. It is expected that the restoration of native wetland conditions will decrease pressures on fish and contribute to their protection.
To better understand the impact of Phragmites management on fish habitat, the Science and Technology branch of Environment and Climate Change Canada conducted a change detection between 2016-2022.
Click the play button on the map to the right to see how the classified Phragmites area and fish habitat change over time.
Barn Swallows
The marshes in Long Point are Important Bird Areas and are vital habitat for bird migration. In addition, the marshes provide foraging habitat for endangered species such as the Barn Swallow. Barn Swallows are aerial insectivores that forage for invertebrates in flight and mostly forage over open-water and meadow marsh habitats.
Sadly, the introduction of Phragmites into Long Point wetlands has led to a decline in aerial forager abundance compared to uninvaded habitats. Our surveys found that fewer aerial insectivores, including Barn Swallows, used invaded habitats for foraging.
Source: Courtney Robichaud, 2019
Further, Barn Swallow counts were higher in uninvaded marsh habitat compared to those invaded by Phragmites. They favored the herbicide-treated areas in the spring, and switched to favoring areas of marsh that had never been invaded by Phragmites later in the summer. However, the counts of foraging birds was always lowest in Phragmites-invaded habitat. This shows that the Phragmites control program improved habitat quality for aerial insectivores.
Aerial insectivores like Barn Swallow feed by catching bugs out of the air. In Long Point, these birds fed more in the treated and reference areas, and avoided foraging in the Phragmites-invaded areas, especially in the spring and early summer. Source: Modified from Courtney Robichaud, 2019
Carbon Sequestration
Wetlands are known to absorb and store carbon, which is important for climate change mitigation. However, individual wetlands can behave differently depending on factors like their vegetation type, climate, water flow, and disturbances such as the introduction of invasive species.
Invasive species often grow and decompose differently than the plant species they replace, which can alter a wetland's carbon balance. Phragmites invasions in Long Point predominantly replaced meadow and cattail marsh, and their dominant species of Canadian bluejoint grass and cattails, respectively.
Research by the Waterloo Wetland Lab found that because the leaves of Phragmites are more easily broken down by microbes, even though the plant produces more biomass than some of the native species it replaced, it may not be leading to greater carbon storage. Therefore, the potential consequences of Phragmites removal on carbon sequestration remain unclear.
Over the course of a year, leaf litter breaks down in the wetland. Different plant species produce litter that breaks down at different rates. Litter from Phragmites (Common Reed) breaks down the fastest, meaning less of its carbon ends up stored in the wetland.
Invasive Phragmites produces a lot of biomass aboveground in the form of dense stems with many leaves. Native plant communities, especially in shallower water, produce less biomass so they are sequestering less carbon. Treated areas have very limited plant growth in the first year after treatment. As they come to resemble reference plant communities, they will resume sequestering carbon.
Plants can produce as much biomass below the soil in the form of roots and rhizomes as they do aboveground in the form of stems and leaves. The reference plant community of native species produces more belowground biomass in deeper water, even more than Phragmites does.
Wild Rice
In Turkey Point and Rondeau Provincial Parks, the removal of Phragmites was followed by an expansion in the extent of Wild Rice, a species of cultural significance...
Manoomin (Wild Rice) is a food that the Anishinaabek received from the creator many years ago. One of the prophecies was for the Anisinaabe to travel westward until they found the food that grows on water. Also we were told if we did not leave the east coast that we would not survive because of the new comers to turtle island. When they reached the great lakes region they found massive beds of wild rice growing in the lakes and tributaries.
...the role of Phragmites invasions in reducing Wild Rice abundance continues to be an area of active research.
More Resources
Graduate Student Theses
Much of the work described above is based on theses by graduate students in the Waterloo Wetland Lab . Click the word "Link" at the end of each thesis citation to open a new tab to the document to read the full theses.
- Robichaud. 2016. Long-term Effects of a Phragmites australis Invasion on Birds in a Lake Erie Coastal Marsh. M.Sc. Thesis. University of Waterloo, Department of Biology. Link .
- Howell. 2017. Best Management Practices for Invasive Phragmites Control. M.Sc. Thesis. University of Waterloo, Department of Biology. Link .
- Yuckin. 2018. Detecting the Effects of Biological Invasion and Subsequent Control Efforts on Wetland Ecological Processes. M.Sc. Thesis. University of Waterloo, Department of Biology. Link .
- Polowyck. 2020. Eleocharis geniculata (Bent Spike-rush) Great Lakes Plains Population: Conservation in the Face of Invasion. M.Sc. Thesis. University of Waterloo, Department of Biology. Link .
- Robichaud. 2021. Multi-trophic Effects of Invasive Species Suppression in a Coastal Wetland. Ph.D. Thesis. University of Waterloo, Department of Biology. Link .
- Jordan. 2022. Native Wetland Plant Recovery Following Phragmites australis Invasion. M.Sc. Thesis. University of Waterloo, Department of Biology. Link .
- Zago. 2022. Wetland Birds and Invasive Plant Management. M.Sc. Thesis. University of Waterloo, Department of Biology. Link .
- Lew-Kowal. 2024. Enhanced Precision of Aerial Herbicide Application for Invasive Species Management. M.Sc. Thesis. University of Waterloo, Department of Biology. Link .
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
Many of the students publish Click the citation below to open a tab with the peer-reviewed paper. If you are asked to pay for access to any of these, please instead email rrooney@uwaterloo.ca with the subject "Requesting Your Paper" and I will email you any PDFs of papers you request for free.
- Robichaud, C.D., Rooney, R.C., Larson, B.M.H., Wolfe, S.E., Nyssa, Z., Kowalski, K.P. and Braun, H., 2023. A decision framework for the management of established biological invasions. FACETS, 8, pp.1-10 .
- Yuckin, S.J., Howell, G., Robichaud, C.D. and Rooney, R.C., 2023. Phragmites australis invasion and herbicide-based control changes primary production and decomposition in a freshwater wetland. Wetlands Ecology and Management, 31(1), pp.73-88 .
- Robichaud, C.D. and Rooney, R.C., 2022. Invasive grass causes biotic homogenization in wetland birds in a Lake Erie coastal marsh. Hydrobiologia, 849(14), pp.3197-3212 .
- Robichaud, C.D., Basso, J.V. and Rooney, R.C., 2022. Control of invasive Phragmites australis (European common reed) alters macroinvertebrate communities. Restoration Ecology, 30(4), p.e13548 .
- Robichaud, C.D. and Rooney, R.C., 2022. Differences in above-ground resource acquisition and niche overlap between a model invader (Phragmites australis) and resident plant species: measuring the role of fitness and niche differences in the field. Biological Invasions, 24(3), pp.649-682 .
- Robichaud, C.D. and Rooney, R.C., 2021. Effective suppression of established invasive Phragmites australis leads to secondary invasion in a coastal marsh. Invasive Plant Science and Management, 14(1), pp.9-19 .
- Robichaud, C.D. and Rooney, R.C., 2021. Low concentrations of glyphosate in water and sediment after direct over-water application to control an invasive aquatic plant. Water Research, 188, p.116573 .
- Yuckin, S. and Rooney, R., 2019. Significant increase in nutrient stocks following Phragmites australis invasion of freshwater meadow marsh but not of cattail marsh. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 7, p.112 .
- Lei, C., Yuckin, S.J. and Rooney, R.C., 2019. Rooting depth and below ground biomass in a freshwater coastal marsh invaded by European Reed (Phragmites australis) compared with remnant uninvaded sites at Long Point, Ontario. The Canadian Field-Naturalist, 133(4), pp.364-371 .
- Robichaud, C.D. and Rooney, R.C., 2017. Long-term effects of a Phragmites australis invasion on birds in a Lake Erie coastal marsh. Journal of Great Lakes Research, 43(3), pp.141-149 .
Check out their website at this link
This StoryMap was produced by the Waterloo Wetland Lab at the University of Waterloo, led by Dr. Rebecca Rooney . Special thanks to Grace Lew-Kowal for StoryMap development.
This work was funded by Environment and Climate Change Canada under the Grants and Contributions Agreement GCXE22C114.
