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.

The conservation authority said it will receive $15,000 for its own projects and another $10,000 to lead the collaborative. It did not say how the remaining $58,000 will be allocated, including how much will go to the town or college.

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.

The authority plans to treat phragmites at Woodend Conservation Area in NOTL this fall. Work has begun at some of the conservation areas slated for treatment, but the authority had not said whether Woodend was among them by publication time.

Niagara College and the town had also not answered The Lake Report’s questions about how much funding each will receive and what work it will pay for by publication time.

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.

paigeseburn@niagaranow.com