Lake Michigan Coastal Dunes Restoration Project
2013 Field Season Report
The Nature Conservancy and Partners
The Nature Conservancy deeply appreciates the generosity of all our partners, including most notably,
the Meijer Foundation. With the support of our partners, we have considerably advanced the goal of our
Lake Michigan Coastal Dunes Restoration Project – to restore a crucial part of the world’s largest
freshwater dune system so that it may continue to provide for both people and wildlife.
Over the past six years, your support has enabled our team of dedicated staff and partners to implement
established control methods to limit the spread of the invasive baby’s-breath. To date, we have treated
1,356 acres of northwest Lower Michigan sand dunes, working more than 39,000 hours in the pursuit of a
healthy, more resilient dune system that will be here for generations to come.
We hope that you are as pleased as we are by the results of our 2013 field season, the accomplishments of
which are described throughout this report.
I. Eastern Lake Michigan Dunes
The dunes that line Eastern Lake Michigan are a key component of the Great Lakes freshwater dune
system, the largest such system in the world. With its strikingly beautiful backdrop of shifting sands,
interdunal wetlands, and forested pockets, this globally-significant ecosystem provides many benefits for
both the people and wildlife that coexist here. For example, these coastal dunes provide:
 Critical ecosystem services, such as groundwater filtration and the mitigation of severe weather
events;
 A destination for recreation and tourism activities which support local economies; and
 Habitat for many diverse plants and animals, including rare or endangered species, such as:
♦ The piping plover, which nests along the dunes’ gravel and sand beaches, is a shorebird
that’s Great Lakes population is federally listed as endangered.
♦ The federally listed threatened Pitcher’s thistle plant, which thrives only on wind-swept
open dunes, requires up to eight years to produce seed and is found nowhere else in the
world.
♦ One of Michigan’s rarest insects, the Lake Huron locust, thrives in sparsely vegetated dune
systems and relies on the dunes’ natural processes.
Although this area shelters great biodiversity, it also harbors a number of non-native, invasive species.
One of the most aggressive and destructive of these species is baby’s-breath.
A native of Eastern Europe, baby’s-breath was introduced accidentally to the dunes in the mid-20th
century and began to flourish. Its preference for dry, sandy, calcium-rich soil found in these ecosystems
has allowed it to out-compete surrounding native plant species, until it is nearly all that remains. (Figure 1
shows an infested, untreated area that is essentially one of these baby’s-breath ‘monocultures’.)
Baby’s-breath uses a deep taproot to firmly
anchor itself to the dunes, preventing the
natural shifting of the sands that is so
critical for many native species’ survival. In
addition, the plant spreads very rapidly –
each plant is capable of producing 14,000
seeds each year, which are dispersed by
wind.
In an effort to combat the spread of baby’sbreath populations at and adjacent to the
Zetterberg Preserve at Point Betsie, The
Nature Conservancy began implementing
control measures in this area in the mid1990s. More recently, the National Park
Service at Sleeping Bear Dunes National
Lakeshore joined this effort.
Figure 1: Baby’s-breath (purple bloom) destroys habitat for native
species that rely on the natural shifting of the dunes for their
survival. ©TNC Archives.
In 2006, additional funding was generously provided by the Meijer Foundation, enabling the creation
and development of the Lake Michigan Coastal Dunes Restoration Project, which began field work in
the summer of 2007.
The ultimate goal of this project is not only to contain the spread of baby’s-breath in Lake
Michigan dunes, but also to reduce the threat to a ‘maintenance level’ by 2016, whereby future
control of baby’s-breath will require only a minimal amount of annual resources. This report
summarizes summer 2013 field activities that successfully moved The Nature Conservancy and partners
toward this goal.
II. Control Methodology
In order to most effectively manage an invasive species it is necessary to understand its ecology, especially
its reproductive traits. Through The Nature Conservancy’s extensive experience in treating baby’s2013 Lake Michigan Coastal Dunes Restoration Report
2
breath, we have developed an effective methodology to efficiently reduce baby’s-breath populations in
our coastal dune ecosystems.
Due to its use of wind for seed dispersal, baby’s-breath control is always performed ‘leeward’ – meaning
we implement control downwind at the most southwestern point, moving with the wind to the northeast
– to avoid leaving behind plants that will re-introduce seed to treated areas. The actual on-the-ground
control approach includes both manual removal and herbicide use.
Manual removal is carried out with a sharp-bladed steel spade. The blade is inserted into the soil parallel
and as close to the root of the plant as possible, angled toward the root, and then sharp downward force is
applied to sever it. This cut must be made below the point where the taproot transitions into the plant’s
stem in order to prevent re-growth the following year. This method is used in areas with sensitive species,
during rain or high wind, and where it is not logistically feasible to transport herbicide and the large
amounts of water that is needed to dilute the herbicide.
In 2007, The Nature Conservancy and the National Park Service performed herbicide field tests in
preparation for future applications. The findings show that the herbicide that best strikes a balance
between effectiveness, safety, and minimal impact to non-target plants is glyphosate, more commonly
known as Roundup™. It is mixed with water and applied to the plant’s leaves from a backpack sprayer.
Roundup™ inhibits an enzyme involved in plant amino acid synthesis. When applied during the plant’s
vegetative stage – the part of development when stems, roots, and foliage are being produced – it is
capable of not only stopping growth, but killing the plant entirely. This prevents late-season seed
production and prevents regrowth the following
year. While there is some variability, baby’sbreath is typically in that stage from May to early
August, providing a standard timeframe for the
field season.
Figure 2: This partially restored dune area (on the right) at the
Conservancy’s Zetterberg Preserve at Point Betsie has
responded well to herbicide treatment. The left side of the
photo shows an untreated area. ©TNC Archives.
Figure 2 (left) shows an example of how effective
this herbicide and application method are in
eradicating the target species, while leaving native
vegetation unharmed. The area on the left of the
photo is untreated and has gray-lavender masses
of baby’s-breath. The area on the right has
received treatment for multiple seasons, leaving
native plants intact while opening up sandy
patches which provide prime habitat for Pitcher’s
thistle and other species.
III. 2013 Season Overview
In the 2013 field season, field crews had a two part strategy: re-treat over 150 acres of conserved and
adjacent private land at TNC’s Zetterberg Preserve, and assist Grand Traverse Regional Land
Conservancy and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in their efforts to treat and/or retreat as much
of their infested areas as possible. In terms of acreage treated, we successfully met our overall goals
for the season:
1.
Re-treat over 150 acres of land at and around the Zetterberg Preserve (167 acres treated in total).
2. Apply first time or re-treatment to the maximum amount possible on GTRLC and SBDNL
lands (81 and 316 acres treated, respectively).
2013 Lake Michigan Coastal Dunes Restoration Report
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This year also marked the seventh year of this estimated ten-year project to apply treatment to all
infested acres (approximately 1,800) along the shoreline of northwest Lower Michigan as a crucial
component of long-term baby’s-breath control. As we near three-quarters of the way through the
project’s ten-year timeframe, 81 percent of all infested areas have received at least one round of
treatment, providing evidence that our treatment methodology is compatible with our estimated
timeframes.
Despite our significant progress, a major logistical obstacle still persists, as it has since the beginning of
the project: To continue working in new, untreated areas (which is necessary to gain complete control of
baby’s-breath), we must spend an increasing amount of time to reach these areas, the majority of which
are in the most remote locations. Most notable among them is the Dune Plateau at Sleeping Bear Dunes
National Lakeshore. This site is heavily infested and requires herbicide application for optimal efficiency.
One of the most critical components for chemical control is the availability of clean, sediment free water
to dilute herbicide, something these remote sites lack. Please see page 17 of this report
(Recommendations for Future Seasons) for techniques that can be implemented in 2014 and beyond to
address this issue.
The Nature Conservancy Dune Restoration Crew
This year a seven-person crew completed control work at sites owned or managed by the National Park
Service, Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy, and The Nature Conservancy from May 6 to
August 8. All crew members also either passed a Michigan Department of Agriculture’s pesticide
certification exam or already came to the position possessing their MDA pesticide certification license,
thus ensuring proper handling, application, storage, and general knowledge of all chemicals used in
invasive plant control during this season.
Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Crews
In 2013, both Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy and the National Park Service at Sleeping
Bear Dunes National Lakeshore fielded crews targeting a variety of invasive plant species, including
baby’s-breath control. GTRLC utilized 3 of their invasive species survey and treatment technicians
alongside the TNC crew for four days of baby’s-breath and associated invasives treatment at their
Arcadia Dunes preserve. NPS employed four to eight biological technicians as available to treat baby’sbreath throughout Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore for 19 days during the May to August field
season. The TNC crew was present for 11 of those days to assist on removal activities at the Lakeshore.
2013 Lake Michigan Coastal Dunes Restoration Report
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IV. Overall Treatment Summary
Figure 3: 2013 baby’s-breath control sites
Sleeping Bear Dunes Treatment Summary
Figure 4: 2013 baby’s-breath control sites at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
2013 Lake Michigan Coastal Dunes Restoration Report
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2013 Field Work
Crews continued to control baby’s-breath at three sites during the 2013 field season: The Nature
Conservancy’s Zetterberg Preserve at Point Betsie (ZPPB); Grand Traverse Land Conservancy’s Arcadia
Dunes (Figure 3 above); and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (SBDNL) (Figures 3 and 4
above). Each of these properties has received surveying, treatment, and monitoring under the scope of the
project since 2007.
As previously reported in 2011 and 2012, Wilderness State Park used to receive survey and treatment
through this project. However, survey results from 2010 and 2011 indicated that there were no baby’sbreath infestations present on Park land itself, a finding confirmed by the Park’s managers and biological
technicians. That said, there are still occasionally plants found on private land to the south of the park.
This year, a former TNC staff person familiar with the project identified a small infestation on private
land and relayed the information to the TNC project manager, who spent a few hours one afternoon
removing the plants manually. This is an excellent example of how “maintenance levels” of invasive
species can be easily managed into the future with much smaller resource allocations. By comparison, pre2010 park survey and treatment efforts required approximately 100 person-hours each year to complete. .
In the future, continued information-sharing between DNR and TNC staff will ensure that any new
populations are removed immediately.
Similarly, Petoskey State Park is now at a maintenance (or possible eradication) level with respect to
baby’s-breath as well. TNC staff spent approximately an hour surveying previously-worked areas and did
not find any baby’s-breath populations. Of note, the invasive plants bladder campion and spotted
knapweed were present, but still at the very low densities that have been observed in the past. Despite the
removal of baby’s-breath (and therefore increased habitat availability for all species) these invasives do
not seem to be staging a “secondary invasion” of the area. As with Wilderness State Park, DNR and TNC
staff will continue to monitor the area and respond to future invasive populations accordingly.
In applying control efforts this year, The Nature Conservancy worked a total of 2,925 hours, the
National Park Service worked 505 hours, and Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy Staff worked
120 hours. Additional help was provided by volunteers at the Lakeshore, totaling 78 hours. Finally, TNC
staff assisted local community groups for two days on baby’s-breath removal at the Congregation
Summer Assembly (CSA) and Michabou Shores residential area; that work totaled 140 hours.
The total number of work hours spent on baby’s-breath control this year was 3,768 1.
Details regarding the 2013 field season can be found in Figure 5 and Table 1 (below). These figures
represent hours spent by all crews performing control efforts.
1
The 140 hours of time spent removing baby’s-breath at the CSA and Michabou shores area was performed mainly
to assist these local groups with enacting their own, yearly, sustainable control. As such, data on total area
infested/treated was not recorded, and therefore is not included in Tables 1 and 2 below. If those efforts are
successful in the future, more time will be spent training those groups on how to more accurately track their
progress over time, and those results will be included in ongoing reporting.
2013 Lake Michigan Coastal Dunes Restoration Report
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Figure 5: 2013 Field Season Combined Crew Hours by
Site
140.0
4%
400.0
10%
1915.0
51%
1312.8
35%
ZPPB
SBDNL
CSA/Michabou
Arcadia Dunes
Table 1: Treatment Summary (Acres) by Site 2013
Site
Total
Treated
New
Acres
Total Retreated
Acres
Total
Treated
Acres
Estimated
Infested
Acres
Percent of
Infested
Area
Treated
Percent of
Previously
Treated
Area ReTreated
Total Crew
Hours
ZPPB
SBDNL
Arcadia Dunes
9.6
92.0
0.0
155.7
227.0
81.0
165.3
319.0
81.0
291.0
1375.0
81.0
56.8
23.2
100.0
84.9
22.3
100.0
1915.0
1312.8
400.0
Total
101.6
463.7
565.3
1747.0
32.4 2
69.1
3627.8
3
15.6
Average Acres Cleared in 10 Hour Day by 10 Person Crew (Weighted vs. Crew Hours) =
Acres
Cleared
in 10
Hour
Day, by
10
Person
Crew
8.6
24.3
20.3
In the 2013 field season, a total of 101.6 new acres were treated across the three control sites.
When considering the 463.7 acres that were re-treated, a total of 565.3 acres received control
treatment. Therefore more than 30 percent of the total infested acreage (1,747 acres) received
treatment in 2013 alone. Please note that the large amount of variability in crew productivity at
different sites is due to vastly different levels of baby’s-breath density.
2
This value only represents the percent of total infested area treated for 2013; see Table 2 for total area treated to
date.
3
Weighing the values for acreage cleared per crew per day against the percentage of crew hours spent there
provides an estimation of how many acres a 10 person crew can clear in a 10 hour day over the course of the
whole season; for 2013 this number is 15.6 acres. That value is very important as it allows for more accurate
resource allocations for future treatments, and can provide a factor for establishing acreage goals for following
field seasons.
2013 Lake Michigan Coastal Dunes Restoration Report
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2007-2013 Field Work
Since 2007, a total of six sites have received control treatment, the three described previously as well as
Green Point Dunes, Petoskey State Park, and Wilderness State Park (which will receive monitoring in
the future as they do not require treatment at the present time). In this project’s lifetime, crews have
contributed almost 43,000 hours surveying, monitoring, and treating baby’s-breath infestations on 1,458
acres of northwest Lower Michigan sand dunes.
To date, approximately 77 percent of the estimated infested 1,888 acres has received treatment.
Reaching this level of success required the combined efforts of The Nature Conservancy, National Park
Service at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy, the
SEEDS Youth Conservation Corps, and numerous volunteers. Figure 6 and Table 2 below depict the
total hours spent and acres treated by site from 2007 to 2013.
Figure 6: 2007-2013 Combined Crew Hours by Site
483.3
1%
286.0
1%
2024.8 140.0
5%
0%
134.0
0%
ZPPB
16693.6
39%
SBDNL
Petoskey SP
23377.4
54%
Wilderness SP
Arcadia Dunes
CSA/Michabou
Green Point
Site
ZPPB
SBDNL
Petoskey SP
Wilderness SP
Arcadia Dunes
Green Point
Total
Table 2 - Treatment Summary (Acres) by Site 2007-13
Total
Total
Percent of
Estimated
Total
Acreage
Acres
Infested
Total Crew
Infested
Area
ReTreated
Area
Hours
Acres
Treated
Treated
to Date
Treated
192.9
494.1
687.0
291.0
66.3
16693.6
1110.0
1245.8
2355.8
1375.0
80.7
23377.4
39.4
79.4
118.8
39.4
100.0
483.3
33.6
3.9
37.5
101.0
33.2
286.0
81.0
111.6
192.6
81.0
100.0
2024.8
1.0
1.0
2.0
1.0
100.0
134.0
1457.8
1935.8
3393.6
1888.4
77.2
42999.1
Average Acres Cleared in 10 Hour Day by 10 Person Crew (Weighted vs. Crew Hours) =
2013 Lake Michigan Coastal Dunes Restoration Report
Acres Cleared
in 10 Hour
Day, by 10
Person Crew
4.1
10.1
24.6
13.1
9.5
1.5
7.9
8
From 2007 to 2013, crews averaged 7.9 acres per day. This rate increased from 5.3 acres per day
cleared in 2007 to 15.6 acres per day for 2013. Despite this increase, it is highly unlikely that this
efficiency measure will continue to grow, for as mentioned previously, we are now looking to address
some of the most densely infested and remote areas.
As expected, as more acreage is treated, more acres will require re-treatment. To address this, National
Park Service staff spends the first week of each field season surveying and coordinating with The Nature
Conservancy in an effort to prioritize areas for treatment. Fortunately, due to our efforts, there are
already significant areas at multiple properties that have reached a very low species-density level and
therefore will either require a minimal resource allocation each year, or will only require control efforts
on a bi-yearly or even less frequent basis.
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V. Control Sites
Zetterberg Preserve at Point Betsie
Figure 7: Zetterberg Preserve at Point Betsie
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Established by a 71-acre donation from Steve and Connie Zetterberg in 1989, The Nature Conservancy’s
Zetterberg Preserve at Point Betsie now spans 145 acres of protected sand dunes located just south of
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore near Frankfort, Michigan (Figure 7).
This year a total of 1,915 hours were spent controlling baby’s-breath at the Zetterberg Preserve. Including
surrounding private lands and areas treated since 2007, the total area originally infested with baby’sbreath at this site is approximately 291 acres,, with the most densely infested areas to the north and the
east (where wind-blown seed has accumulated year after year).
Based on work efficiency numbers from previous years, we established a 2013 goal of treating over
150 acres on the Zetterberg Preserve and surrounding adjacent private lands. During the field
season 165 acres were treated, including re-treatment of virtually all previously treated on- and offproperty acreage, and new treatment at the Point Betsie Lighthouse property and a small portion of
private land that crews did not reach in 2012. Since 2007, a total of 193 acres have received
treatment.(Figure 7).
Considering the 2013 crew efficiency for Zetterberg Preserve – 8.6 acres cleared in a ten-hour day by a
ten-person crew – it may seem that Zetterberg Preserve is one of the more difficult control sites to treat.
However, the crews concurrently treat another invasive, spotted knapweed, at this property. (Spotted
knapweed out-competes native dune species for resources and it introduces chemicals into the soil that
kill competing native plants and prevent new ones from germinating.) Crews spend approximately half
their time on control efforts of this plant and therefore the measure of crew efficiency is roughly half of
the field season average.
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
Figure 8: Dune Point baby’s-breath treatments for 2013
(Orange areas on Figures 8-12 represent 2013 total treatment area)
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Figure 9: Empire Bluffs baby’s-breath treatments for 2013
Figure 10: Aral Field baby’s-breath treatments for 2013
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Figure 11: Platte Bay baby’s-breath treatments for 2013
Figure 12: South Boundary baby’s-breath treatments for 2013
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In 2013, 1,313 hours of work at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore took place at several sites
significantly infested with baby’s-breath along its 35 miles of coastline (see Figure 4).
The Nature Conservancy crew contributed 730 hours and the National Park Service crew worked 505
hours, and volunteers contributed 78 hours. The current estimate for infested area in the park (including
area treated to date) is 1,375 acres.
This year crews were able to treat 319 total acres, including 92 acres of new treatment. In the past
(despite being less-efficient than chemical treatment) primary control on the lakeshore has been via
manual removal with a steel spade due to the difficulty in obtaining sediment-free water for herbicide
mixing. However this year crews employed a simple filtration system to draft water from Lake Michigan
when possible, which greatly improved their overall efficiency.
Since 2007, crews from the National Park Service, The Nature Conservancy, other organizations, and
volunteers have spent about 23,377 hours treating a total of 1,110 acres, which is 81 percent of the total
infestation area.
In 2013, control was focused on a number of sites: The Dune Plateau point, Empire Bluffs and an
inland area known as Aral Field, Platte Bay, and the southern boundary of the park near
Boekeloo Road (Figures 8-12). We estimate that, on average, a ten-person crew can clear 10.1 acres of
infested area in a ten-hour day in these sites.
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Arcadia Dunes
Figure 13: Arcadia Dunes work area
In 2013, Nature Conservancy and GTRLC crew members spent 400 hours over four days retreating the
entire area treated in 2012 (Figure 13). This represented 81 acres of new treatment and is a critical
2013 Lake Michigan Coastal Dunes Restoration Report
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component of ensuring a southern boundary to the known baby’s-breath infestation in northwest Lower
Michigan.
Following the highly-successful use of chemical control on the invasive plant bladder campion, that
strategy was employed again this year. Bladder campion, an invasive plant, is present in many dune areas
but normally at a low enough level that it is minimally-harmful to native ecosystems 4 . However, at
Arcadia Dunes its population has increased dramatically following the removal of baby’s-breath, a trend
not seen in other control sites. Given that it is directly competing with threatened species like Pitcher’s
thistle for open sand habitat, it was identified for control efforts at this site. Based on recommendations
from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (and the success of that technique last year), the
herbicide Dicamba was applied from backpack sprayers to the target plants over approximately one acre.
VI. Looking Ahead: Recommendations for Future Seasons
As always, the greatest challenge facing this project is that the areas yet to be treated are some of
the densest and most remote of all baby’s-breath infested lands.
Herbicide treatment is required to efficiently treat very high-density areas, but finding clean water for
chemical mixing is an ongoing issue. Two approaches were employed in 2013 to address this problem.
The first was the aforementioned water filtration system employed at Sleeping Bear Dunes National
Lakeshore, which allowed crews to obtain water suitable for herbicide mixing directly from Lake
Michigan. This strategy was very successful on areas such as Platte Bay where there is little elevation
change or overall distance from the shoreline to the areas targeted for control treatments.
The second strategy was an attempt to obtain the necessary equipment to draft water from the lake when
there was significant elevation change and/or distance from the shoreline to the treatment areas, such as
on the dune plateau. For context, the dune plateau is a “perched dune”, essentially a (relatively) small
amount of sand “perched” on top of a very high gravel and clay glacial moraine. Sleeping Bear’s dune
plateau is one of the highest coastline areas in all of Eastern Lake Michigan, over 300 feet higher than the
shoreline. A very fit individual, carrying no pack or extra weight, would require between 45 minutes and
an hour to ascend from the water to the plateau. Adding multiple gallons of water would likely double or
triple this time, and would be highly unsafe as well. Understanding this, The Nature Conservancy applied
to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Endangered Species habitat restoration grant program, funded by
the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. Our application included a budget that would allow for the
purchase of two large water reservoirs, a high-pressure pump, and hundreds of feet of hose. With these
supplies we would be able to draft water into one of the tanks, and then “leap-frog” that water to the next
tank, as many times as necessary to move a significant quantity of water to the work area in a short period
of time. Unfortunately, this application was not funded, and another source of funds to obtain the
necessary equipment has not yet been identified.
NPS staff members have proposed alternate strategies including rain collection and multi-day crew
camping in these remote areas to increase efficiency, but those have not been approved by park
management. In 2014, crews will simply need to work at maximum efficiency with traditional methods
unless a solution can be found during spring of 2014.
Another ongoing challenge facing the dunes is the advancement of other invasives, such as
spotted knapweed and bladder campion. Spotted knapweed is widespread at almost all control sites
and bladder campion is becoming increasingly common. As it is always much more time- and cost4
Examples of bladder campion staying at non-threatening levels are more common than not; both the Zetterberg
Preserve and Petoskey State Park have bladder campion populations that do not appear to be spreading or
otherwise out-competing native species.
2013 Lake Michigan Coastal Dunes Restoration Report
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effective to attack invasives in the early stages of infestation, treatment for these species should be a
priority in future plans. While the best case scenario for spotted knapweed is simply controlling its
spread, treatment efforts like those at Arcadia Dunes have proved more successful than anticipated, and
therefore bladder campion may still be within the realm of eradication at the sites where it poses an
ecological threat.
Additionally, more research is needed to determine whether a new variety of baby’s-breath is becoming
more common at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Crews in the Platte Bay area in 2011 and
2012 semi-regularly encountered plants that have a different growth habit from typical baby’s-breath –
this growth pattern resembled that of normal baby’s-breath that were removed incompletely in previous
years. But, these plants were found in sites where control efforts had never been applied, leaving the
possibility that these plants may be a new variety that is untreatable with mechanical methods. When
found, these populations must be chemically treated to prevent re-sprouting in following years.
There is also the issue of private landholdings. Sleeping Bear Dunes, Wilderness State Park, and
Zetterberg Preserve at Point Betsie all have privately-owned adjacent properties or private land
inholdings infested with baby’s-breath and other invasive plant species. Communication with
private landowners, however difficult, must be made a priority. Not only will treatment on their property
make control efforts easier in the future (reducing the seed source), it will benefit the ecology of the dune
system immensely and even increase property value in the long term.
These landowners must be helped to understand that baby’s-breath removal, provided at no cost
or effort to them, will increase the beauty and value of their property and is a key component in
overall dune conservation as well.
[Of note, the landowners of the inholding at Zetterberg have reached out to conservation staff regarding
a sale or conservation easement for their property, and it is likely that at least part of that land will be
treated (and permanently protected) in the coming years.]
Finally, one of the most critical challenges we face is finding a partner to continue this important
work. This is especially critical should the Meijer Foundation not wish to continue to lead this effort as
it has in the past.
The Meijer Foundation’s past grants to The Nature Conservancy for ongoing dune restoration work
have allowed us to leverage $1.75M in public funding through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative by
greatly increasing our private matching commitment, a crucial component of application success in this
incredibly competitive grant program. We recently submitted a new project proposal to GLRI (via the
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s “Sustain Our Great Lakes” program) for a 2015-2016 coastal
restoration project, and continued private match funding is critical to securing the public funding
necessary to complete the project successfully.
VII. Conclusion
The Nature Conservancy is truly grateful to all of its partners for their generosity, understanding, and
support of our critical and timely work. With strong support and leadership from our partners, we have
made astounding progress in maintaining and restoring the beautiful and globally-significant Eastern
Lake Michigan dune system for future generations. The importance of this work, controlling the harmful
and aggressive invasive baby’s-breath, cannot be understated. The impact of this work will continue to
generate conservation results not only for people and wildlife today, but for generations to come as we
apply lessons learned across Michigan and the Great Lakes basin.
Thank you once again for making this important work possible.
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