Loosestrife…Pretty, but Dangerous to Our Wetlands

Purple Loosestrife, it’s everywhere, and you never give it a second thought when you pass by it. It’s just another plant in the wetlands, but what you don’t know is that it’s invading our wetlands, lakes, and rivers killing off all the native plants species. Our Girl Scout troop 724 of Pewaukee had to complete a 30-hour community service project in order to earn our Silver Award. One of our teachers introduced us to Mr. Charlie Shong, and he told us what we could do to help solve the Purple Loosestrife problem.

After meeting with Mr. Shong, and discussing what needed to be done, we began at once. At a meeting, we put together 14 nets for the plants that we were going to collect. After the ground thawed, we set out for the Lake Country Bike Trail in Pewaukee to dig up the Purple Loosestrife plants. It was a hard, muddy day of work. We took them back to the Pewaukee Lake Sanitary District to wash, and replant the Loosestrife into twelve-inch pots. There we strung the nets, and put the plants in small wading pools, which were filled with water, as if the plants were in their natural habitat.

After a couple of weeks had passed, it was time for the four of us to gather the beetles. When we arrived at the Sanitary District, we had no idea of how we were going to collect them. Mr. Shong had made us some bottles for beetle collecting. At the Lake Country Bike Trail, he explained what the beetles looked like, and showed us one. They were reddish, and about the size of a nail head. We walked to the Purple Loosestrife plants, and examined the leaves to find beetles. We had to tap the leaves in the bottle, so the beetles would fall off and land into it. When we got back to the Sanitary District, we had to put at least ten beetles on each of the 14 plants.

Five weeks later, the beetles were fully hatched and had eaten the plants. The next step was to release them in Taylor’s Bay. There is bog on the side of Taylor’s Bay where Purple Loosestrife is growing rapidly. We loaded the pots onto a barge and motored across the lake to the bog. Because Mr. Shong didn’t have any record of beetles living in this area, he decided that this was a good place to release our beetles. The big release was successful!

A few weeks had passed, and we voyaged around Pewaukee to view twelve areas that were infested with Purple Loosestrife. We surveyed each area, looking for beetle damage of the Purple Loosestrife. We also looked for native animals, plants, and insects. Those things sound insignificant to our project, but the truth is, that information was essential. We wanted to see how native plants, animals, and insects survived with a non-native invasive species such as Purple Loosestrife.

Once the sites were surveyed, we were invited to the Waukesha County Conservation Department to create a map of the area that included our twelve sites. We talked to several individuals that work at the department who helped us to make the map. They highlighted the areas on a computer as we discussed each one, and printed a big version of it. Plus, they gave us several 8 X 10 copies to take home with us.

When we looked back on the sites that we surveyed, there were different characteristics about each one. Some sites had little to no Purple Loosestrife, and numerous amounts of good wetland plants. Then again, there were some sites that had a numerous amount of Purple Loosestrife that were harming the wetlands in those areas. This could be very devastating for Pewaukee’s wetlands. Even though a few areas didn’t have Purple Loosestrife, the majority of the sites did. The Pewaukee wetlands are in poor condition because of Purple Loosestrife, but there are still good native wetlands plants that should be taken care of.

In conclusion, the wetlands in Pewaukee are in poor condition, and the same goes for many wetlands, lakes and rivers throughout Wisconsin. Purple Loosestrife is only one of the many problems. Our project has made a small dent, but it’s not enough. We need to have as many people save our wetlands as possible, because if no one does, then all of our wetlands will die. We need people to help, and you can make a difference.