Crews use precision spraying techniques by helicopter to apply herbicide to phragmites on Seagull Bar. - Photo by John Huff, Wisconsin DNR

Working with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, who owns Seagull Bar, the Green Bay Ecological Services Field Office undertook a project designed to remove Phragmites from this potential piping plover nesting area. 

Utilizing Natural Resource Damage funds, a contractor was hired to apply approved herbicide to the Phragmites stands using a GIS-guided precision helicopter spray apparatus.   A total of 160 acres were treated on Seagull Bar and other nearby State wildlife lands. 

The removal of this invasive reed grass will greatly improve the habitat value of these areas for piping plovers and many other shorebird species.

Piping plovers (Charadrius melodus) are small shorebirds that breed on sparsely vegetated beaches along the Great Lakes shorelines.  Many of the coastal beaches traditionally used by piping plovers for nesting have been lost to commercial, residential, and recreational developments. This habitat loss has lead to a drastic decline in piping plover numbers, especially in the Great Lakes where they are federally listed as an endangered species.

In recent years, piping plovers have made failed attempts to nest on Seagull Bar, an exposed sand bar which extends out into the bay of Green Bay from Marinette, Wisconsin.  Each year the amount of suitable nesting habitat on the bar is reduced by the spread of an invasive exotic plant called Phragmites or common reed grass. 

Capable of growing over 10 feet tall, Phragmites spread throughout the area via an extensive network of underground roots.  Over time this expansion results in the formation of dense stands of monotypic reed grass that reduce or eliminate native vegetation and the wildlife habitat value of the area.