The Sportsmen’s “Get Outdoors” Club spent a couple of hours Tuesday, Aug. 7 digging and removing purple loosestrife from roadside ditches near Devlin.
Loosestrife is spreading quickly along roads, into fields and pasture lands, and into waterways.
Each plant can produce up to 2.7 million seeds and are easily spread by water, wind, wildlife, and humans.
Once established in wetlands, the swamp or pond becomes choked up by a sea of purple flowers–killing native plants upon which aquatic animals depend.
Control methods can vary. Digging them out or cutting off the flower heads help to prevent this year’s plants from producing more plants in future years.
Biological control is sometimes used. Galerucella beetles, which were introduced in the heavy infestation along Hughes road, can be imported.
It is still unclear, though, how effective they are in our climate.
The loosestrife along Hughes Road has been reduced significantly, but so far the beetles haven’t spread very far from the site when they were released in 2000.
It was hoped they would increase enough to control the plants in the surrounding wetlands.
None of the control methods will wipe out the loosestrife.
The object is to reduce the population enough so that the plant will not have much effect on native plants and wildlife.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
