State targeting invasive refuge plant

FARMINGTON BAY — From I-15, you don't see the war going on just to the west. It pits people against plants on a battlefield that includes 18,000 acres of wetlands.

Phragmites, or vegetation of the non-native variety, are winning — here in the Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area, and in five other areas of Utah where thousands more acres are being overrun.

People like Rich Hansen are throwing everything they have at the phragmites — fire, chemicals, even cows.

"We want to attack phragmites from every angle possible," said Hansen, a wildlife biologist with the Utah Department of Natural Resources.

It was his job Tuesday to take an advisory council on a tour, to show these concerned citizens where state resources have beaten back phragmites and where to strike next.

Some strategy is experimental.

An adjacent landowner is being allowed to let his cattle graze on 60 acres with the hope they will eat the young "succulent" phragmites and control the plants' ample ability to spread quickly.

It's not just a problem in Utah or the U.S. Farmers in Europe are catching on to harvesting phragmites for use in fertilizer, compost and even non-structural concrete production.

But there are between 3,000 and 5,000 acres in the Farmington Bay area that are currently besieged by phragmites.

Last year's budget of public funds for spraying and controlled burns came in at around $15,000. Hansen said about $200,000 is needed. The 2006 Legislature gave his department a "small chunk" of that request.

"If we had the funding, we could hire out an airplane and spray," Hansen said.

Without that, the goal this year is to again spray by hand, targeting about 300 acres at a cost of about $50 per acre. Groups like Ducks Unlimited help with private donations to bolster the efforts.

And there are plans for controlled burns on about 600 acres — not an easy task due to certain time, wind and weather requirements. Burns have to take place before May 1 or in late August to early September. Proposals for controlled burns also have to pass muster with state air quality officials.

One year, the wind shifted on a phragmites fire and a blanket of thick, black smoke headed east instead of toward Antelope Island.