Huron Pines AmeriCorps members and staff were among 25 volunteers working in chest-deep water to remove invasive cattail from Alpena Wildlife Sanctuary on Friday, June 25.
They joined community volunteers, wetland restoration crew from Loyola University, and board members for the sanctuary and Thunder Bay River Center in clearing narrow-leaf cattail from the kayak launch and a swath of the sanctuary. By doing so, they also dealt a blow to European frog-bit, another invasive that hides among the cattails. The mountain of cattails that were cut and removed that day was enough to fill 21 city dump trucks.
Loyola University conducts experimental removals like these to measure their impact on invasive frog-bit.
“We’ve done this treatment elsewhere, both with our mechanical harvester and weed whackers, and it is effective,” said Drew Monks, Research Associate at Loyola University.
Here are photos from that day.
Volunteer Ethan Weinkauf (l) and Huron Pines AmeriCorps members Nick Theisen and Larissa Schmock load a boat with cattail. 
Huron Pines AmeriCorps member Graham Parks shoves mounds of freshly cut cattail toward shore for removal. 
Huron Pines AmeriCorps member Larissa Schmock (l) and volunteer Ethan Weinkauf rake mounds of cattail to a boat for removal. 
Volunteers use rakes and modified weed trimmers to cut and remove cattail from a swath of Alpena Wildlife Sanctuary. 
Huron Pines AmeriCorps members Larissa Schmock, Molly Fava and Nick Theisen (l-r) fill an aluminum boat with cattail. 
Judy Kalmanek, board member for Huron Pines and treasurer of Thunder Bay River Center, holds a bundle of invasive narrow-leaf cattail. 
A volunteer clears cattail from around the kayak launch. 
A mound of cattail is staged for loading into a city dump truck. 
Huron Pines AmeriCorps member Madeline Khuri holds an armful of narrow-leaf cattail. 
Volunteers clear cattail from the area near the kayak launch at Alpena Wildlife Sanctuary. That day’s efforts removed enough cattail to fill 21 city dump trucks like this one.