Manoomin

The Fox River, which flows into the Bay of Green Bay (the City of Green Bay is at the river mouth), has been known historically as one of the most polluted waterways in the US.  It is currently designated as one of 43 "areas of concern (AOC)" by the International Joint Commission of Canada and the United States.  Heavy industrial use along the river, including many more paper mills than those that exist today, contributed to polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) discharge into the river, which would then periodically be washed from the River into the Bay.  Add on the influence of phosphorus loading and other nutrients (from a variety of land uses and products, including agriculture, home fertilizer use, etc.) and the impact to this river system has been pretty complex over the last 150 years.  It is believed some of these high nutrient loadings may have been a factor contributing to the invasive Phragmites grass issue that I work on for my job.  Nonetheless, the land use history of the area really has an ecosystem-wide impact influencing the land, flora, fauna, and ultimately the people who live and recreate in the region.

The good news is many people and entities have worked very hard to clean up the pollution and restore important wildlife habitat and public use areas over the last few decades.  One of the initiatives in its second year in the lower Bay is reintroduction of wild rice into the wetlands.  Wild rice (known as Manoomin to the Ojibwe) is a native aquatic grass found in many northern Wisconsin lakes that provides an important food source for migrating waterfowl, and is an important spiritual food for Native American peoples.  Actually, the Menominee Tribe (translates to "Wild Rice People") is very influential to the history of this area.  The ripened seed is harvested and hulled to produce the final product wild rice, which we can purchase at the grocery store today and enjoy at home.  Wisconsin actually has a wild rice harvest season, although most of the areas that produce it in significant quantities are further "Up North."   The Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission maintains maps of the Manoomin waters in the Upper Midwestern states.

Earlier experiments indicated that the wild rice seed source in Green Bay was no longer present, so the only way to bring the plant back is to actively seed it over the course of several years.  Typically the best time to plant wild rice seed is in mid-late fall, before waters freeze up for the winter so the seed is settled in place at the bottom and ready to go by next spring.  This can be a touchy endeavor in Wisconsin in November (last year I heard is was very cold and windy out there during seeding!), but we lucked out with a beautiful sunny day with abnormally high temperatures near 60 degrees.  The many conservation professionals assisting assembled at the boat launch, sent about 6 boats into the water, and divvied up bags of wild rice.  The rice seed has to be kept wet until seeding, so the burlap bags were nice and soggy and very smelly on seeding day.  We launched into none other than Duck Creek to reach our target areas.

Duck Creek looking toward the City of Green Bay (Tower Bridge/Rt. 43 on the left)

Each boat team had a designated area to seed (we had Duck Creek East), where we cruised back and forth through the marked plot and tossed the seed out the side of the boat.  Not very technical in nature, but not a very clean or glamorous job either.  The areas we were seeding were about 2-3 feet deep and in an area where the water has some movement to it at the mouth of Duck Creek, but is largely protected behind the Cat Island Wave Barrier (in place to rebuild the historic island chain from clean fill dredge material).  Pretty exciting since the area we were working is probably less than a mile from our house.  We were on the Bay for about 2 hours and it was a great trip with plenty of waterfowl around.  I'm sure they found some of our seed and enjoyed it later.

Conservationists gearing up for wild rice seeding on a bluebird day

A handful of wet, slimy wild rice seed ready for launch

Coworker Bobbie demonstrates the technique

The effort also made the local news!  You can watch or read the two great news spots from WLUK Fox 11 and WBAY 2 for more details.  A great day for conservation.