Invasive phragmites, a reed grass capable of reaching 15 feet in height, can’t grow in water more than a few feet deep. Now that Lake Huron water levels are falling from record highs in 2020, dormant roots from drowned phragmites are coming back to life and sending up their towering shoots once more. … More Take on Invasives: Phragmites
The goal of Huron Pines’ budding seed-collection project is to find remnants of what were once sprawling landscapes, gather seed from the plants growing there, then propagate them for efforts to restore native plant communities. … More Bringing Back Biodiversity One Seed at a Time
Join Huron Pines and Otsego Conservation District to learn how to identify invasive shrubs like autumn olive and Japanese barberry and the proper ways to remove them from your property. … More How to Identify and Remove Invasive Plants
The pink and purple spikes sprouting from roadside ditches right now might look pretty, but behind their floral facade lurks the potential for millions of seeds that can ride the wind and spread this highly invasive plant across Northern Michigan. … More Take on Invasives: Purple Loosestrife
A tiny, floating plant that can dominate entire shorelines of ponds, lakes and slow-moving rivers is here in Northern Michigan — and it is spreading fast. Mats of frog-bit make it difficult or impossible for fish, waterfowl and other wildlife to move through infested areas. … More Take on Invasives: European Frog-Bit
Picture a carpet of vegetation so dense that your legs become lost in a sea of green as you wade through the forest. The woodland wildflowers that used to bloom here are no more, lost to a flood of invasive plants. Gone too are the diverse insects that once clamored over every blossom and propagated those beloved native flowers. What’s left are trees and an understory of nothing but garlic mustard. … More Take on Invasives: Garlic Mustard
In areas where it takes hold, Japanese barberry outcompetes every other plant. This means the flowers, trees and shrubs that provide pollen, nutrients and habitat which support native wildlife don’t have a chance to grow. Left unmanaged, barberry forms a thicket, upwards of 6 feet tall, of snarled and thorny branches. Once it spreads, it grows without interference because its thorns keep deer and other wildlife at bay. … More Take on Invasives: Japanese barberry
On the remote shore of Negwegon State Park, where Lake Huron’s rugged coast gives way to long, narrow sand dunes, one of Michigan’s rarest plants is hanging on.For most of its life, the Pitcher’s thistle is a wispy tangle of short, silver-green stems.Below ground, the plant will spend the better part of a decade sending a taproot 6 feet down. … More Treasures in the Sand: Protecting One of Michigan’s Rarest Plants
Learn about how and when purple loosestrife was introduced to North America, what makes it invasive, how to properly identify it and distinguish it from common look-alikes. This is part one of a two-part instruction on identifying, monitoring and reporting purple loosestrife. … More Session 1: Introduction to Purple Loosestrife
Picture a spring when mosquitoes and blackflies are free of predators. Swarms of biting bugs take over campsites and patios, unfettered by swooping swallows or dive-bombing bats because there are none. Chances are you’ve had a perfectly good camping trip or backyard picnic spoiled by bugs before but, in the absence of natural predators, they … More Bring Out the Good Bugs With Native Plants