Local landscape architect field trials and tribulations of phragmites and knotweed control. Volunteers needed.
Brook Pond
By Bob Laravie, Mill Creek Steward
What is that horrible screeching sound? Dragging the canoe into Port Jefferson’s Mill Creek Pond, the area recently rebranded as Brook Pond Park, I am off on another session of underwater cutting. Underwater cutting of invasive Phragmites seems to work well. Maintaining water depth of the pond is important because if the plants break the water surface they can regenerate quickly.
The use of the canoe with the cane hook on a long pole is quite pleasant work except for that horrible screeching sound under my canoe. That sound is not rocks; just cut off Phragmites stems sticking up from the bottom.
Peering into the water looking for a flash of light green pointing straight up, sometimes visible clearly on the bottom, sometimes hidden, just poking up from a mass of the aquatic plant Hydrilla, I reach with the cane hook. I slide it down the stem to the bottom, then a slicing sound, like cutting crisp celery.
It must be the hollow aluminum pole transmitting the sound from the depths. If the Phragmities shoot is fresh and well growing, it shoots up like a Polaris missile out of a submarine. Another reach with the cane hook; it's cane is dragged to the side and tossed into the canoe. I can tell how the work is going by how buoyant the stems are, some slowly rise, barely making it to the surface, the underwater cutting is working, the rhizomes are fading.
Peering into the water looking for a flash of light green pointing straight up, sometimes visible clearly on the bottom, sometimes hidden, just poking up from a mass of the aquatic plant Hydrilla, I reach with the cane hook. I slide it down the stem to the bottom, then a slicing sound, like cutting crisp celery.
It must be the hollow aluminum pole transmitting the sound from the depths. If the Phragmities shoot is fresh and well growing, it shoots up like a Polaris missile out of a submarine. Another reach with the cane hook; it's cane is dragged to the side and tossed into the canoe. I can tell how the work is going by how buoyant the stems are, some slowly rise, barely making it to the surface, the underwater cutting is working, the rhizomes are fading.
The wind drifts the canoe around, I am in the center of the pond now, drifting randomly like Brownian motion.
The wind drifts the canoe around, I am in the center of the pond now, drifting randomly like Brownian motion. Always looking for that flash of light green, like a gold miner looking for “color." I look up, a pair of mallards cruising around the pond, a dash of a dragonfly about a foot off the surface, moving in a slightly more organized pattern that I am. From my youth I remember, “ that’s a sewing needle, it's going to sew you up.” A kerplunk of a bull frog landing in the water from its jump from the bank. There's redtail hawks, herons, red wing blackbirds , song birds, and eels. A good pile of cut shoots are in the canoe.
Knotweed removal is tougher. You have to cut often, perhaps not a sustainable solution in some locations. If you see someone (pictured below) like this, it is me removing Japanese Knotweed canes.
If you see someone like this, it is me removing Japanese Knotweed canes.
Led Zeppelin IV cover album
With stubborn invasive species like Japanese Knotweed and Phragmites, removal can feel like a Sisphean task.
Additional Resources
Mill Creek is about 2000 feet long. It flows northeasterly from Brook Pond to the tide gate at the harbor bulkhead. More volunteer stewards are needed for this ecological beautification project. Contact Bob Laravie, Mill Creek Steward for more information.
Map credit: Dec 2022- Port Jefferson E report.
RSS Feed
