This article by was originally published in the Winter 2023 Newsletter
Troy Burgess, President of Wasatch Wigeons
We might be a little crazy, but we’re making a big difference
The Willard Spur wetland area is an overlooked gem of the Great Salt Lake ecosystem, a mixture of federal and state lands squeezed between Willard Bay, Harold Crane Waterfowl Management Area to the south, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge to the north, and municipal and private properties to the northeast. As the eastern part of Bear River Bay, the Spur is the freshwater arm of the GSL. This unique wetland is mostly in the Great Salt Lake watershed and also encompasses the Bear River water basin to the north and Weber water basin to the south.
This combination of multiple water basins and mix of state, federal, and private lands is part of why the Spur is one of Utah's gems. The difficulty of managing multiple stakeholders has allowed the Spur to, in a way, slip through unnoticed. No dikes or roads crisscross the spur, leaving it vastly untouched by humans. It's pretty much the same now as it was forty-nine years ago when I was first introduced to it.
How we started working on the Spur:
Back in 2017, Wasatch Wigeons Association removed an old car chassis from the Willard Spur. To our surprise, what was believed to be an old military jeep turned out to be a Lincoln Zephyr. This chassis had been out there as a navigation hazard for about twenty-five years, causing multiple incidents with boaters.
After removing the Zephyr, we took some time to look around and asked what else we could do to improve the area. We quickly realized it was being overtaken by phragmites and tamarisk. After approximately two years of planning and research, we finally acquired permissions from Utah Department of Wildlife Resources (UDWR), Bureau of Reclamation (BOR), Weber Basin Water Conservancy District (WBWCD), United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Willard Bay Gun Club, and Willard Gun Club to conduct mitigation in the Spur area. Having multiple partners (private, state, federal) makes things a bit complicated, but we've found ways to make it work.
Why focus on Phragmites and Tamarisk?
Expanding stands of phragmites spread out across wetlands, reducing nesting and foraging habitat for migrating waterfowl and shorebirds. Phragmites also chokes out biological diversity within a native plant community. The thick monotypic stands of phragmites do not promote the appropriate plant and invertebrate communities required by water birds to meet critical life cycle events. Due to the plant's high biomass, phragmites evapotranspiration is higher than most native plant species. Reducing the percentage of phragmites within a given wetland will help improve water quantity to the GSL. Phragmites also accretes soil and litter at much higher rates than most native plants. Rapid soil accretion, high amounts of litter, and very high density of stems alter water distributions, reducing downstream flow and, in some cases, resulting in loss of wetland habitat further downstream. Slower flows also will result in increased evaporation.
The presence of dense tamarisk degrades habitat and water quality for waterfowl and shorebirds by outcompeting native desired vegetation for forage and nesting. Additionally, tamarisk consumes very large quantities of water per day (up to 200 gal. per mature tree) via evapotranspiration. Tamarisk also alters the pH balance in the soil, making it uninhabitable to native plants but suitable for invasive species like phragmites to thrive.
Establishments of phragmites and tamarisk along waterways like the Bear River and Willard Bay Outlet Channel negatively affect the Willard Spur and ultimately GSL by aiding in the distribution of seeds from these invasive plants.
Neither phragmites nor tamarisk provide benefits to local or migrating wildlife and are both very destructive to the local ecological systems. In addition to degrading ecological systems, they can also negatively impact recreational users by limiting opportunities to view and observe wildlife, participate in waterfowl hunting or wildlife photography, and more. Without human intervention, these plant species will continue to thrive and expand, causing additional acreage loss of our key wetland ecosystem. The wetland benefits even more with the reintroduction of native plant species to promote a balanced ecosystem key to the wildlife species that depend on wetlands for at least part of their life cycle.
Our objective:
WWA's primary goal is to restore the eastern portion of the Willard Spur to its former beauty and ecological productivity, in a multiple-phase approach. In order to achieve this, we plan on reducing phragmites and tamarisk in our target area to 5% of the ecosystem, before returning it to BOR, USFWS, and UDWR. This aggressive goal exceeds the current state and federal goals, allowing the organizations to absorb the target area back into their monitoring program.
Our Method:
WWA utilizes a double mow and treatment method for combating phragmites. This requires mowing all 27 acres [7.5 miles of shoreline (phase 1)] of phragmites on the Spur every April and again every June, then treating with herbicide Aug-Sept. The April mowing clears the area after the previous year's treatment, allowing the existing seed banks to germinate. The June mowing reduces seed production and maintains access to the area for the late-season herbicide treatment. Each phragmites stem can produce upwards of 2,000 seeds annually. The late summer/early fall treatment kills that year's growth. This method is repeated annually until the desired goal is reached.
We started using this method in April 2021 and are seeing amazing results—especially along the 4.5-mile stretch of shoreline along the frontage road behind the north side of Willard Bay and both sides of the Willard Bay outlet channel.
We utilized heavy equipment to remove the majority of tamarisk (where heavy equipment could access) and followed up with the cut-stump method on new shoots. This method utilizes less herbicide than the other methods. Where heavy equipment could not access the area, we utilized a cut-stump method with additional follow-up as needed. We still have a couple more seasons to finish up the tamarisk portion of phase one.
June 10th, 2023 marked a major milestone for phase one, as we planted over 800 bulrush (Hardstem & Alkali) plugs along a 4.3-mile stretch of shoreline. Next year, we plan on planting more than twice that amount in the phase one target area. During next year's planting, we plan on influencing cattail growth in certain areas previously frequented by hunters. This will re-establish old hunting blind areas with new native vegetation.
What's next?
Sometime in 2024 or 2025, WWA will start phase 2 of our Willard Spur project, which is even more aggressive as it is a larger portion of acreage in open wetlands with approximately 40% phragmites. This phase will be almost entirely phragmites removal with little to no re-vegetation being conducted. The effort will leave open water areas and allow native plant species to fill in others. We'll be heavily dependent on availability and rental of specialized equipment to conduct the mowing portions of this project. It will require both reactive and proactive methods of phragmites treatment. The type of proactive method we will be using is referred to as wick whipping: a method of herbicide application that applies the solution directly to the targeted plant, reducing non-targeted species exposure. This will be used where phragmites is starting to engulf growths of desired plant species like cattail and bulrush.
In summary, WWA conducts these types of projects to improve Utah's wetlands and educate the community through hands-on volunteerism. This also takes a small portion of the burden off our state and federal agencies and promotes community involvement.
For additional information about WWA check out their website at https://www.wasatchwigeons.org/
Questions can be sent to Troy@Wasatchwigeons.org