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Pictured is a cattail colony established at Lake Babcock.
One of the more common wetland plants in our area that everyone seems to know are cattails. The scientific nomenclature for the common or broad leaf cattail is Typha latifolia. A now very common, close cousin is the narrow leaf cattail, Typha angustifolia. Narrow leaf cattails are actually a listed invasive plant and are invading wetland areas at an incredible rate. They hybridize readily with broadleaf cattails and are making their way into the Nebraska waterscape quite quickly these past few years.
Broadleaf cattails are native to Nebraska, all other states, except Hawaii and many continents throughout the world and considered an obligate wetland plant by wetland scientists. That means they absolutely need water all or most of the growing season. This past summer and fall, you can see where cattails started out well, but diminished in their dominance and expression as drier conditions persisted. Typically cattails need about 2-and-half feet of standing water to do really well. If deeper than that they quit expanding, unless to form a floating mat.
We were at Lake Babcock on very windy day recently in late October and noticed the small seeds from the pistilate portion of the cattail flower called a catkin or the brown part with a spike on top of the cattail plant. The wind was so strong it was blowing the tiny seeds in extremely large numbers into the trees in Loup Park and almost gave a look of snow encrusted at ground level, because of the large cattail community in the shallow, sediment filled basin adjacent to Loup Park.
I have seen seed dispersal for numerous aquatic and wetland plants, but nothing like this as the seeds, the size of a mosquito, filled the air in the park. The significance of this unique observation tells me we have a tremendous amount of cattails growing in Lake Babcock-too many. Loup Power District has applied for funding from the America the Beautiful Challenge program through the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. The funding will allow dredging the cattail dominated area and making deeper, for improved open water habitats and greater access. Award notifications are to be announced in November. This would be a terrific conservation effort if funded.
There are numerous benefits from this group of aquatic plants. Native Americans and early pioneers used cattail rhizomes as a starch and they were eaten raw or boiled. The catkins (top) of the plant were ground into a flour for sustenance. Large cattail colonies provide invaluable winter habitat for mammals, waterfowl and gamebirds in the Great Plains and areas that have them typically have hunt-able pheasant populations to go with it. Cattails maintain their stem rigidity through the winter and provide excellent escape cover from predators and protection from the wind and moisture. We have seen this habitat advantage of cattail colonies in North and South Dakota for 20 years.
The down sides (like in Lake Babcock) are that cattails can aggressively overtake a pond, lake or basin when the right depth and water conditions prevail. They can be difficult and may take a combination of mowing, burning, chemical application and/or reseeding to get under control. Homogenous colonies limit wildlife use for waterfowl as the open water areas diminish and prevent greater utilization by biodiversity of various plant and animal species in general.
The sedimentation in Lake Babcock has provided an emergent plant mecca for plants that grow well in quiet water with fine silt and particulates. The local residents take pride in their cultures and traditions and use of the area, with current recreation focused on land nearby or adjacent to what use to be open water.
In the past, the Lake North and Babcock area was home to many traditional activities such as water shows, water sport competitions, fishing competitions and overall a centerpiece for recreation. Today those traditions still linger, but most activities have vastly diminished with excessive sedimentation in the last 80 years in Lake Babcock portion from the Loup canal system.
I am hopeful they will talk about what we did to improve conditions in Lake Babcock 80 years from now.
Happy Halloween!
Michael P. Gutzmer, PhD is principal and owner of New Century Environmental LLC and provides environmental consulting services in the Great Plains. NCE works with water, wetlands, habitat development threatened and endangered species and pollution problems. Please email me at mgutzmer@newcenturyenvironmental.com.
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Pictured is a cattail colony established at Lake Babcock.
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