The reed grasses growing behind Ontario’s natural resources minister at Niagara College’s campus in Niagara-on-the-Lake were a ready-made backdrop for his announcement Wednesday: $5 million to fight the invasive plant species phragmites across Ontario.
Of the $5 million, $83,000 will support projects meant to combat phragmites led by partners in the Niagara Phragmites Management Area Collaborative, including the town of NOTL, Niagara College, the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority, Niagara Region and the City of Niagara Falls.
NOTL’s $10,000 share will pay for phragmites management along roadsides and drainage ditches.
The college will receive $15,000 for control work at its NOTL and Welland campuses. Michael Wales, speaking for college president Sean Kennedy, said most of the funding supports work at the NOTL campus, but an exact campus-by-campus breakdown is difficult. The region will receive $23,500 to map phragmites along regional roads and ditches.
Niagara Falls will receive $19,000 for work along roadsides and in stormwater ponds, while the authority is listed for $15,500 for mapping and management at five conservation areas and a Bruce Trail Conservancy property.
Work to manage phragmites at Woodend Conservation Area in NOTL is underway, the authority confirmed.
The collaborative brings together more than 50 participants from 30 organizations.
“The funding supports monitoring, mapping, treatment and collaborative management efforts,” said authority spokesperson Erika Navarro in an email.
Credit: DAVE VAN DE LAAR
A Marsh Master can be used to shred phragmites.Phragmites is a tall reed that spreads through wetlands and along roadsides. Minister Mike Harris called it “a scourge of an invasive species.”
When present in an ecosystem, the reeds spread quickly and form dense stands that crowd out native plants and damage wetlands, beaches and wildlife habitat.
Harris said invasive species, including phragmites, cost Ontario roughly $3.6 billion in lost productivity and other expenses.
At Niagara College’s NOTL campus, president Sean Kennedy said the reeds had become hard to ignore.
“There was a massive and growing phragmites challenge here on this campus.”
Kennedy said the college has “made some progress over the past couple of years” removing phragmites, with students in its environmental programs helping with the work. But he said the college would struggle to keep removing phragmites at the scale it wants without the new funding and resources.
He said the college is financially stretched and has had to make difficult choices about which projects it can afford.
“This is a type of project that we know we need to do, we want to do,” he said.
Kennedy hopes to come as close as possible to clearing phragmites from campus in the next year or two.
The Niagara Phragmites Management Area Collaborative has mapped about 48.5 hectares — roughly 120 acres — of phragmites across the Niagara Peninsula watershed.
“The funding announcement today means partners can move from identifying the problem to taking action,” said Leilani Lee-Yates, the conservation authority’s chief administrative officer and secretary-treasurer.
