AIS Webinar Series: Can Removing Invasive Cattails Benefit Lakes?

About this webinar: One important characteristic of a healthy lake in Minnesota is a diverse community of aquatic plants in the nearshore zone. These vegetated areas provide crucial spawning and rearing habitat for most fishes and important food and habitat resources that sustain the entire lake's food web. An important characteristic of a healthy aquatic plant community is that there are a variety of physical plant forms living together. For example, you might see floating leaved plants (such as lily pads), emergent plants (such as bulrush), and submerged plants (such as pond weeds and water celery) mixed together. You may also see some open areas with no visible plants; in other words, a healthy nearshore zone is "patchy" and has many different types of plants coexisting. In many lakes in Minnesota, invasive, hybrid cattails are overtaking nearshore zones and altering the habitat by forming dense, homogenous stands of invasive cattails. These dense stands can have negative effects on lake ecosystems and can be a nuisance to landowners as they prevent lake access and overtake shoreline areas. Our project aims to understand how we can manage invasive cattails in our lakes to restore nearshore plant community diversity, maintain water quality, benefit fishes and other organisms, and keep our lakes healthy. Additional webinar information can be found on the full event page.