Plant Relatives and Communities
Healing Fish Creek Slough
A Community Led Approach to Restoration
The Fish Creek Slough is important feature of the Chequamegon Bay region’s culture and ecology.
Early records tell us this was a gathering place for many people because of abundance of fish, other wildlife, and plant resources. As a semi-open water coastal wetland, or hemi-marsh, it was a critical migration stopover site for shorebirds and waterfowl and important habitat for fish and numerous other animals and plants.
Although still and important habitat resource for birds, fish, and many other animals and plants, this dynamic habitat has been significantly degraded by lake water level fluctuations, hydrological impacts from logging and development in the watershed, and the introduction of invasive plants such as non-native cattails.
Volunteer with us
Cut Invasive Cattail
September 12th & 13th
Check out our Chronolog station. Community members are helping us document the site. Add your photo to the collection by visiting the site.
Project Timeline
January 2025- July 2026
Information Gathering
Field trips, public surveys, presentations to local governments and tribes. Meetings with natural resource professionals. Understanding why this place matters to the community.
August – September 2026
Cutting and Crafts
First round of cattail removal. Volunteers cut just below the surface of the water. Most cattail biomass removed for compost. Traditional craft workshops with dried cattail.
November 2026
Manoomin Seeding
Planting initial test plots of manoomin (wild rice) after the bird migration. Building cattail domed structures around the manoomin to protect from birds and other wildlife.
August – September 2027
Cutting and Crafts
Second round of cattail removal. Volunteers cut just below the surface of the water. Most cattail biomass removed for compost. Traditional craft workshops with dried cattail.
The Project
Superior Rivers is supporting the health of Prentice Park and Fish Creek Slough by:
- Removing up to 12 acres of invasive hybrid cattail
- Seeding a test plot with manoomin (wild rice)
And we need the community’s help to do this.
Why Remove Cattails?
The species of cattail dominating the slough is a non-local being, otherwise known as an invasive species.
The invasive narrow-leaved cattail (Typha angustifolia) hybridized with the native broadleaf cattail (Typha latifolia), resulting in a sterile hybrid that rapidly reproduces by vegetative reproduction (cloning). They spread across the marsh on extensive underwater rhizomes, rapidly choking waterways and out-competing other plants for sunlight and soil nutrients.
This leads to many problems:
- Less native plants that stabilize the soil and serve as food and shelter for wildlife
- Removes important habitat for shorebirds, spawning fish, turtles, amphibians, and other aquatic beings
- Reduces complex water movement patterns and depth by filling natural flow channels with dead plants
Why Restore Manoomin?
Manoomin seeds and vegetation are an important food source for wildlife and has been a nutritional staple for the Anishinaabe people for generations. Manoomin provides important nutritional benefits and its harvest and use is a centerpiece of Anishinaabe culture. It is believed that the Fish Creek Slough was once an important harvesting site for the Anishinaabe. Seeding with Manoomin is an important investment in returning the slough to its historic state, improving wildlife habitat, and restoring a traditional connection between our communities.
What Are the Wildlife Benefits?
Replacing a monoculture cattail habitat with a more diverse native plant community has numerous benefits for wildlife. The restoration of hemi-marsh habitat in the slough will improve the migratory stopover habitat and resting/roosting sites for Blue Wing Teal, Piping Plover, Red Knot, Marbled Godwit, Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Black Tern, Common Tern, Forster’s Tern, Caspian Tern, and more. A more diverse habitat benefits fish by providing more open water and better conditions for prey species like macroinvertebrates. Turtles, snakes, and frogs benefit from increased sunlight exposure for body temperature regulation (thermoregulation) and more abundant sheltering and nesting microhabitat.
The Process
Cutting Cattail
We are planning to employ an amphibious vegetation mowing machine known as a “Marsh Master” to cut cattails just below the water’s surface to ensure the least sediment disturbance. We may stack some cut biomass on the site to help slow regrowth of cattails. The majority of the biomass will be hauled off-site for disposal at a City of Ashland composting site. A local commercial composting business, Big Lake Organics, is interested in incorporating composted cut cattail biomass in their line of gardening and plant products. We are planning cattail cutting events for volunteers to get involved as well, with the cut cattails being used in planned traditional fiber weaving craft workshops.
Encouraging Native Plants
After clearing up to 20 acres (8.1 ha.) of cattails, we are planning to establish a five acre (2.0 ha) pilot-scale Manoomin (wild rice, Zizania palustris) plot using locally-gathered seed. To determine if wild rice was historically present in the project area, 20 soil core samples were gathered in 2025 and sent to Grand Valley State College in Michigan for analysis. The soil samples were placed in growth chambers to see if dormant (legacy) wild rice seeds-which remain viable for many years-are present. Some of samples are seeded with our local wild rice to use as experimental controls. At this time (Feb., 2026), we are eagerly awaiting results of the growth trials, because restoration sites that have previously had wild rice present are far more likely to successfully host sustainable regrowth. Long rectangular restoration plots, designed to discourage waterfowl landings, will be surrounded by fencing to protect seeds and young plants from grazing by geese and swans (herbivory), and re-seeded with up to 200 lb. (91 kg.) of locally-gathered wild rice seed. The sites will then be carefully monitored for re-growth of cattails and progress of germination and growth of wild rice plants.
Based on the guidance of the Ganawenindiwag (a plant restoration guide based on Anishinaabe Traditional Ecological Knowledge, see below) and recent plant surveys, at least eight other important plant species-white water lily, broadleaf arrowhead, sessile-fruited arrowhead, soft-stem bullrush, bog willow, bladderwort, and more-are present and may be restored to their approximate original abundance. Because these species are already present on the site, restoration may be as simple as clearing plots of invasive plants and allowing native species to regrow on their own. Outcomes of these pilot native plant restoration efforts will inform and shape future large-scale restoration efforts aimed at returning all of Fish Creek Slough to the condition of a highly ecologically and culturally functional coastal hemi-marsh system.
The Ganawenindiwag
We are using the Ganawenindiwag – Working with Plant Relatives to Heal and Protect Gichigami Shorelines guidebook to inform our restoration and seeding decisions.
Ganawenindiwag (“they take care of each other” in the Ojibwe language) empowers users to grow, promote, and use plants adapted to coastal areas of Gichigami (Lake Superior) to heal and protect shorelines which may have experienced erosion from storms and changing water levels. Focused on the Wisconsin coast, Ganawenindiwag is designed for use by coastal-land caretakers, homeowners, resource stewards, and anyone who interacts with shorelines of Gichigami and its connecting waterways. Ganawenindiwag helps users make coordinated and informed plant selections for vulnerable coastal environments, while inviting readers to understand cultural connections between people and plants that have long existed on this landscape.
Project Goals
- Increase community connection to the Fish Creek Slough
- Improve overall habitat for wildlife and native plants
- Sustain and improve traditional use and recreational opportunities for the public
- Increase local climate change impact resilience
- Employ Traditional Ecological Knowledge to inform restoration work
Plant relatives of the Fish Creek Slough
Forked duckweed
Forked Duckweed have paddle shaped leaves strewn together like a chain by small stems. Chains weave large mats floating below the surface, providing habitat for invertebrates and fish. Duckweeds can acclimate to most aquatic environments; they aren’t picky about turbid water which we often see in Fish Creek Slough. Forked Duckweed supports the Slough by taking nutrients out of the water, in turn the nutrients help the Duckweed grow. As you might guess from the name, Duckweed is a favorite food of birds, namely ducks, however they feed many relatives in the Slough including insects, fish, and muskrats.
Common waterweed
Common waterweed is as you might guess common in the Slough and across waterbodies all around northern Wisconsin. Any fragmented piece of this plant can grow into a new plant. So, where there’s a little Common Waterweed there usually ends up being a lot of Common Waterweed. While core sampling we found them most frequently by getting our canoe paddles stuck in the large mats they grow into. These mats provide great habitat for small aquatic life like macroinvertebrates. Emma and Will found lots of scuds and sowbugs making homes in common waterweed. And a neat thing about Common Waterweed is that they are one of few aquatic plants to be able to provide this sort of habitat year round, often overwintering as an evergreen! Beyond providing habitat, these plants are also strong oxygen producers and provide food to bird, muskrat, and beaver relatives.
Water milfoil
The milfoil in this picture appears to be Northern water milfoil (identifiable by the number of leaflets and formation of winter buds also known as turions). However, much of the milfoil in the slough is hybridized between the native Northern water milfoil and the non-local or invasive, Eurasian water milfoil. The hybridized species adopts traits of both milfoils and can only be identified with certainty by genetic testing. The winter bud or turion forming is one way Northern water milfoil survives winter. In the spring, new plants will grow from the bud. In contrast Eurasian water milfoil can grow from little fragments that fall off larger plants which lends to their aggressive nature. In the peaks of summer you can see the Milfoil take over in the Slough even from above the water. While this take over can crowd out native plants, Milfoils can also provide some habitat to fish and invertebrates and the leaves and fruit of Northern water milfoil provide a tasty snack for waterfowl.
Water celery
This plant is fairly common in northwoods waters. It looks like long grass growing under water. If you’ve ever been out in the Slough in the middle of summer and noticed small white flowers on or near the water surface growing on long curly stalks from the bottom, you’ve seen Water celery! Flowers of the opposite sex are released from plants near the bottom sediment. They are released enclosed around a small air bubble which carries them to the surface where they open and sail across the top of the water, with luck meeting a female flower. Water celery grows by rhizomes, you can see the rhizomatic growth with the long root connecting the leafing plants. These hardy rhizomes are how Water Celery survives the winter. It is tolerant to the Slough’s sometimes turbid waters and is an important food source for waterfowl and habitat for fish.
Richardson’s pondweed
This is one of many different kinds of pondweeds. Think of the leafed underwater plants you might consider “weeds” and avoid when swimming in lakes and rivers… Those “weeds” could be any one of a variety of plants with their own unique qualities and habitat preferences. With so many different types of pondweeds, all with alternating leaves with definitive midveins, it can be hard to identify differences between plants and determine exactly who is who… To make identification even more difficult, appearance of the same species can vary based on environmental conditions. And to take the difficulty up even one more notch, many pondweeds display heterophylly – different leaf forms on the same plant… Those tricksters!
These flowering and fruiting plants are known to form underwater gardens, providing food and habitat to swimmers, flyers, and crawlers. The Clasping-leaf pondweed pictured here must’ve been clipped from its rhizome, which is the root system and means for how the plant could survive the winter. This specific type of pondweed has a high tolerance for disturbance, making it suitable for the Slough’s heavy use and high sediment loads.
Project Funding
Funding for this project is provided by the US Fish and Wildlife Coastal Program and the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin Rare Plant Fund, and Xcel Energy Energizing the Future grant.
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