Moving Sedges

Carex trichocarpa on a gravel spit at Bluff Spring Fen

This post seems really lame. I wanted to write something profound and insightful about the fact that Proposition 8 passed (which depressed me royally). I just haven't been able to come up with the words. Probably because I'm royally depressed.

OK, look at the pretty plants. A problem that we have in various parts of Bluff Spring Fen occurs when sedgey areas are shaded out long enough that they die off completely, and there is no seed bank. The bare peat doesn't take new plants well, and it's very harrd to gaterh quantities of seed for the plants- mostly sedges- that should be growing there.

(Mostly) Bare peat in a degraded seep

A second problem that we have arises out of the fact that the Fen was slated to become a sewage treatment plant sometime in the 1970s. During site evaluattion, a number of gravel spits were bulldozed out into the fen's wetlands. These alter hydrology, and are often colonized by non-native plants. We are planning to have some of these removed with heavy equipment over the winter. One of them somehow grew up in a native sedge (Carex trichocarpa rather than non-nattive vegetation.

Carex trichocarpa that was transplanted last spring

For about a year, I've been slowly transplanting the sedges off of the gravel spit ant onto an area of bare peat around one of the seeps in a corner of the nature preserve. They have done very well. Most have not only survived but have begun spreading by runners. Onb Saturday, I transplanted a bunch more. I'me hopeful that this area will transform from bare peat (with a few aggressive weeds) into a nice sedge meadow over the next several years.