Smoke in Northern Utah

Work to rid wetlands of phragmites should begin soon

Farmington -- Don*t be concerned if you see smoke above some of the wetlands in northern Utah over the next few weeks. The controlled burns that are causing the smoke are actually helping the marsh by ridding it of a plant called phragmities.

Division of Wildlife Resources biologists will probably start burning phragmites at the Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area west of Farmington during the week of March 11.

After they*re done at Farmington Bay, they*ll work their way north.

Phragmites

Phragmites is an aggressive plant that has invaded the marshes of the Great Salt Lake. It*s outcompeting more desirable plants for space.

With the help and support of the Utah Waterfowler*s Association, in
2006 the DWR received $200,000 to spray phragmites on Utah*s waterfowl management areas (WMAs). The DWR aerially sprayed almost 2,000 acres in 2006.

*The downside to spraying phragmites is that the following spring you need to burn the dead vegetation,* says Rich Hansen, manager of the Farmington Bay WMA. *Burning opens up the canopy of phragmites so more desirable vegetation can grow and so we can more efficiently re-spray the phragmites that is still alive.

*After the initial spraying, every acre has to have a follow-up spraying. Killing and then maintaining phragmites is a long-term
effort.*

The DWR has put a 15-year Phragmites Management Plan into action.

*The bottleneck that is keeping us from completing the project sooner is that every acre we aerially spray has to be followed up on for the next couple of years to make sure no phragmites plants survive,* Hansen says. *If we were to spray the phragmites and not follow up, in a matter of a few years it would reinvade these areas.*

For more information, call the DWR*s Northern Region office at (801) 476-2740.