Phragmites Spading Project – Volunteers Wanted!
Come join your neighbors in a local conservation project!
You have likely seen phragmites growing around Richmond (or Williston, Burlington, Hinesburg, Waterbury….all over Vermont for that matter!). It’s a beautiful, tall, reedy grass that forms dense patches and likes wetlands. Unfortunately, it’s highly invasive and takes over the same ecosystems that house our cattails, marsh and song birds, amphibians, muskrats and other lovely native species. It forms a large underground rhizome (root system) and is a tenacious plant, requiring a lot of effort and time to control.
Projects in Ontario, Canada (EcoSpark) and in Woodbury, VT have demonstrated the effectiveness of a manual, non-herbicidal method called spading in controlling phragmites populations. It’s done with a flat-edged spade, and bisects the stalk from the rhizome, starving the plant of the photosynthetic material it needs to survive.
There is a moderate-sized patch that will be our first pilot project for spading in Richmond. It has rapidly spread along the roadside and has already appeared in the nearby lily pond. The workdays are timed for when we’ll be most successful at blocking phragmites’ attempts at reproduction and energy storage. This is where you, our local conservation-minded volunteers, come in!
Here is the link to the sign up.
Event Dates: July 11th, July 12th, July 25th, August 29th, September 5th
Time: Half day: 9:00 am – 12:00 pm or 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Full day: 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Event Address: 135 LaBounty Lane, Richmond, VT 05477
Contact: richmondphrag@gmail.com
If you have any of these tools or can borrow them, please bring them:
- Flat-edged spades (don’t bring pointed shovels)
- Loppers/shears
- Gardening or utility gloves
- Long measuring tape
- Large tarpsNote: if you can lend tools, but can’t volunteer, please get in touch!
Schedule:
Days 1 and 2 (half days): We will measure the length and width of the patch, and then cut and collect the stalks and dense thatches of dead material, leaving about one foot above ground for the spaders to identify stalks.
If we have extra time, we can begin spading!
Day 3: We will cut any new growth, then spade the day away! We will learn the spading technique in the morning, then spade as much of the patch as we can.
Day 4: Same as Day 2.
Day 5: Same as Days 2 and 3.
Each day we will gather at 9 am, have about 30 minutes of instruction, then continue until 12. We’ll have an hour for lunch, then work until 3:30. (If you come for the second half of the day, instruction will happen again at 1:00 pm.) At the end of the day we’ll thoroughly clean all of our tools so as not to spread phragmites, and disband at 4:00 pm.
*Please volunteer even if you can only come for part of the day! Sign up for a half day.
Next summer, we will measure the plot to see how much of it has come back, then rinse and repeat. This is a 3-5 year project, but you’re not committing to anything beyond the day you sign up!
Please bring as much water as you need, lunch, snacks, and come prepared wearing boots, long pants and long sleeves, and sun and bug protection. Phragmites spading is going to be hot, sweaty, a bit grueling, and totally fun and community-building work! Our native plants will thank you.
