Bill Currie and students attended the IAGLR (International Association of Great Lakes Researchers) in Detroit in May, 2017.  Bill presented in a special session on the management of invasive Phragmites in Great Lakes wetlands, a session that combined talks by management professionals and university researchers from across the region. Bill gave a presentation about using the Mondrian model to simulate the effects of using herbicide, burning, and mowing to control Phragmities and restore native wetland plant communities.  An important principle that we have learned from our work with the Mondrian model and in our wetland experiments and regional field studies is that unless the inflow of elevated nutrients (particularly nitrogen) to the wetland are reduced (nutrients in the runoff from agricultural and urban land), restoration activities are unlikely to be successful.

A group of Bill’s graduate students was also at IAGLR this year to give a presentation on their completed SEAS Master’s Project in which they created a Story Map of values and threats in the Northwoods, working with the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes Landscape Conservation Cooperative (UMGL-LCC) and with colleague Doug Pearsall of The Nature Conservancy.

Presentations:

William S. Currie, Kenneth J. Elgersma, Jason P. Martina, and Laura Borgeau-Chavez. The Mondrian model: a tool to develop an adaptive management framework to restore invaded wetlands. Oral presentation, International Association of Great Lakes Researchers (IAGLR), Detroit, MI, May 15-19, 2017.

Edward Waisanen, Kathryn Keeley, Elliot Kurtz, Luxian Li, Yu Xin, Fan Zhang, Douglas Pearsall, and William S. Currie. Supporting Conservation and Decision-Making in the Northwoods: Mapping Values, Services, and Threats. Oral presentation, International Association of Great Lakes Researchers (IAGLR), Detroit, MI, May 15-19, 2017.