RESPONSE OF A WETLAND PLANT COMMUNITY TO MANAGEMENT OF PHRAGMITES AUSTRALIS (POACEAE) IN SOUTHWESTERN CONNECTICUT

Many conservation organizations remove invasive plants with herbicides; however, few quantify the outcomes of management on the invaded plant community (Martin and Blossey 2013). Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steud. is a perennial grass, native to Eurasia, that is now found throughout temperate regions of North America in fresh water, brackish, and salt marsh environments (Meyerson et al. 2009). Despite considerable interest in the effects of P. australis on native wetland ecosystems, relatively little information exists on the efficacy of different management strategies and the response of plant communities to the removal of P. australis, especially over multiple years (Hazelton et al. 2014; Martin and Blossey 2013). We examined the efficacy and effects of removing Phragmites australis from the perimeter of a 1-hectare pond at Highstead Preserve in southwestern Connecticut (41.327,–73.394) over a six …