Cattail Control

“We stand at the edge 

of the marsh at day’s end, watch 

it swallow itself.”

(Found haiku inside the poem, Marsh, by Hans Ostrom)

“Even when you think the ground is solid, it probably isn’t.”  Amanda Budyak

Control of cattails in wetlands is important and hard work.  I do not have the stamina to participate, so I’ve relied on Tom’s blog, Amanda Budyak, Kathie Brock and Craig Annen to help develop this snapshot.  For some years now, we have been removing invasive cattails from our marsh.  Hybrid cattails (Typha X glauca) were showing up in increasingly spreading, dark-green clonal islands, all but eliminating a diversity of high quality species such as blue-flag iris, purple-fringed orchid (below, S. Slapnick photo), turtlehead, many native sedges, swamp thistle and more.

Cattails along University Bay In Madison (S. Slapnick)

Tom, in his August, 2016 blog, stated:  “Hybrid cattail is a highly invasive species that has become a major threat to wetlands in North America.”  He went on to point out that cattail clones can spread linearly as much as 18 feet a year and can take over whole wetlands.  The genus Typha has about 30 species.  They are monocots with flowering spikes.  The female flowers sit sausage-like below the more slender, short-lived staminate tip.  Seeds are tiny and wind dispersed.  If you’ve ever had a cattail bouquet in your house, you know the crumbly mess they make when they are ripe.  They spread by rhizome growth as well as by seed, and new areas can become populated by movement of rhizome pieces via birds and mammals, by floods, and by motor vehicles of all sorts.  The native, Typha latifolia, frequently forms hybrids with the narrow-leaved, non-native T. Angustifolia.  DNA studies of Typha hybridization are wanting.   Increasingly, wetlands, especially smaller marshes and fens, are rapidly degraded by unchecked cattail growth.  Over time, their litter smothers the native species the way mulching your garden smothers weeds.  Craig Annen calls them “litter-driven invasions.”  They also alter the hydrology and nutrient levels of the wetlands.  Our goal is wetland diversity - a supercharged carbon sink.

Cattail Control Methods

In 2016 Kathie and Tom hired Craig Annen’s company, Integrated Restorations, to begin controlling the hybrid cattails.  Our Amanda is part of that crew.  At left are Erin Green, Chris Knief, Amanda and Jared Bland.  Other members of the team were working elsewhere that day.  They are happy, clean, energetic, sweet-smelling-obviously at the beginning of their day. (Photo Amanda Budyak)

Their cattail chemical control methods look relatively easy on paper but are very difficult to carry out in real life by real humans in the heat and humidity of summer dog-day mornings and afternoons (mid June through August).  “And wetlands don’t provide much shade.” (Amanda)

Brush cutters and backpack sprayers are hauled to the cattail site over uneven and invisible ground, skirting hidden sink holes, through muck and ooze, and sometimes, suddenly, into deep pools.  The circular blades slice through the stems, making clean cuts, while at the same time, the litter is expertly directed away from the current active field of work (see Chris Knief above cutting a wall of cattails, photo Amanda Budyak).  Sometimes deadly hornet nests are narrowly missed by the cutting blade, sometimes bees and wasps are aroused.  Chest waders leak, workers fall in.  Sweat pools inside boots so that there is no dry anywhere, just marshy sog.  Always, laughing and colorful words and friendly rescues.  Always stories.

    “There was a huge snapping turtle in the water with us this summer.  I thought it was a beaver at first…We had a few snakes slither through the wetland while we were working…Our feet are completely under the water, making us all very nervous…Never know what’s out there…Always makes for interesting days….A nice change of pace”.  (Amanda)

The cut stems of the cattails are then carefully treated with the aquatic-certified herbicide Imazapyr (3.85%, Polaris) delivered via low output pressure backpack sprayers.  The herbicide mixture has been carefully formulated by Craig Annen to meet requirements for sticking and increased uptake.  I recommend he be consulted (and hired, IMHO) if you want the job done safely and effectively, with minimal collateral damage.

At right, Chris Knief treating cattail cut stems with backpack sprayer. (Photo Amanda Budyak)  Several sprayers usually follow behind one brush cutter.

After cutting and treating, it is important to remove the litter or burn it in the winter or early spring to help the native seed bank flourish.  One treatment like this has been shown to be about 90% effective in the long run (2 years), but a repeat visit (99%) and perhaps an evaluation visit in a couple years may be necessary, depending on the native plant response and the re-invasion threat from upstream.  

Amanda said, “this method, besides being good for solid stands, also works great in high quality areas where there is good stuff all around.”

Left, Turtlehead and Marsh Joepye (Photo Amanda Budyak)

Left, Swamp Thistle (S. Slapnick)

Interestingly, there is another, much simpler, way to control cattails if your site has the right conditions.  Some call it “cut and flood.”  At Goose Pond for example, predictable flooding/drought cycles allow cutting cattails when water levels are low, followed by drowning of the plant rhizomes when high water returns.  If you can control or predict your hydrology, this is a good method.  Some cut cattails in the winter, as low as possible, counting on Spring thaws and floods to do the deed.

Turtlehead (S. Slapnick)