Native Plant Conservation Campaign News: Wisconsin project uses native plants to clean lakes; National Science Foundation documents that native wetlands protect water quality at landscape scales

March 5, 2018

 

The NPCC works to spotlight the important and valuable ecosystem services provided by native plant communities. For example, NPCC news has shared information about how native plant communities buffer hurricanes, floods and other strong storms.  

 

For much more information - as well as tools for Ecosystem Services outreach, see the NPCC Ecosystem Services webpages

 

In this issue, we present two examples of how plants improve water quality:

 

In its 14^th year, a Wisconsin program distributes low cost native plants to help protect lakes from high runoff, erosion, fertilizers and other chemicals.

 

The program cites the generally deeper roots of native plants that helps them absorb water and hold soil better than non-natives. Locally-adapted plants require no fertilizer, and so reduce pollution in runoff. Further, use of natives in gardens and landscaping discourages invasion by invasive non-native plants and harmful algal blooms that exploit conditions where nutrient levels have been artifically elevated.

 

Other communities may wish to explore similar initiatives.

 

 

 

National Science Foundation Funded research shows wetlands provide landscape-scale reduction in water pollution as climate change progresses.

 

Excerpt from study press release:

"... as we lose wetlands, we also lose the significant benefits they provide in pollution control," says Amy Hansen, a researcher at the University of Minnesota's St. Anthony Falls Laboratory and first author of the journal paper.

 

The contributions of small wetlands are especially important for the future, Hansen says. Climate forecasts predict increases in precipitation frequency and magnitude -- conditions under which wetlands play a significant role in reducing river [pollutants].

 

"Our work shows that wetland restoration could be one of the most effective methods for improving water quality in the face of climate change and the increasing global demand for food," says paper co-author Jacques Finlay, an ecologist at the University of Minnesota.