Winding Willows: An Ecological Blueprint for Wetland Restoration and Cattail Remediation

Abstract

A restoration plan for a series of wetland ponds and bioswales at the University of Michigan’s Matthaei Botanical Gardens was developed in order to return the quality and self sustaining properties that have been compromised due to sedimentation and cattail invasion. The dredging plan for Parker Pond shall remove large areas of sedimentation now overgrown with vegetation and improve water quality by allowing it to circulate throughout the entire pond area. Several methods to remove and aggressively combat the invasion of the narrow-leafed Cattail and the hybrid Cattail (Typha angustifolia and T. x glauca) such as prescribed burning, water level modifications, and chemical and physical control such as herbicides, cutting, and crushing, shading, and a combination of several of these were researched. It was determined that mechanical cutting of the cattails in the fall followed by a spring flooding and fall drawdown for planting would achieve the greatest success at Willow Pond. A variety of native shrubs, grasses, forbs, sedges and rushes shall be planted along the banks of Parker and Willow Ponds in order to serve as erosion and cattail control, create micro habitats, and assimilate pollutants from Fleming Creek while serving as an alluring space for the public to enjoy. Many of the these plants are repeated in a bioswale plan to filter pollutants within runoff from the adjacent parking area for MBGNA.