HOUGHTON – Researchers from Michigan Technological University have received grants to tackle Eurasian Watermilfoil and Phragmites, two aquatic invasive species now spreading through the Great Lakes.
Laura Bourgeau-Chavez and Colin Brooks — research scientists at the Michigan Tech Research Institute, the Ann Arbor research center of Michigan Technological University — and Casey Huckins, a professor of biology at Michigan Tech, are leading projects to develop better management strategies to protect the state’s shorelines along the Great Lakes.
Phragmites in Saginaw Bay
Bourgeau-Chavez is the lead investigator on a US Environmental Protection Agency Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (EPA-GLRI) project looking at managing Phragmites, a tall, invasive perennial grass known as the common reed, in Saginaw Bay. The work is also supported by the Michigan Invasive Species Grant Program.
“Some Phragmites stands are so dense that you can’t see someone only ten feet from you,” Bourgeau-Chavez said. “We use remote sensing to get a bird’s eye view.”
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