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Agencies combine efforts to reclaim giant cane habitat

Early Southeast Missouri settlers were greeted by bamboo-like giant cane that grew as round as a man's arm and 30 feet tall in corridors stretching across 10 million acres, historians say.

Described as oceans of vegetation, the cane provided a nutrient-rich food source for wildlife and open-range cattle.

"Giant cane has now declined by 98 percent," said Jason Lewis, a wildlife biologist for Mingo National Wildlife Refuge, as workers potted hundreds of the plants Tuesday at a greenhouse off Highway KK in University Forest.

Cane patches today are few in number and small in size, with plants on average growing no more than 12 to 15 feet tall.

Six agencies have combined their resources in an effort to restore Arundinaria gigantea, the only cane native to the United States, to public lands in Southeast Missouri. Representatives from Mingo, the Missouri Department of Conservation, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, University of Missouri, Mingo Job Corps and Southern Illinois University were on hand during the last two weeks to begin this project.

The disappearance of cane is significant and not only for the animals, birds, reptiles and insects that feed and live in the vegetation, according to biologists. Giant cane also provides a natural barrier for erosion and filters overland pollution, such as sediment and fertilizers.

"These are things we don't want in the water system, that impede water quality. A lot of times, the cane is the only natural buffer left," said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Biology Technologist John Hartleb, as he packed soil down in some of the 200 cane plants potted during the first hour of Tuesday's work.

Cane has been lost to development and especially agriculture over the years. Giant cane typically grows in areas with particularly rich soils, making those locations a prime spot for farming.

Last week, workers dug approximately 3,000 rhizomes from remaining area cane patches. Rhizomes are the underground stem of a plant, that puts out shoots and roots at intervals. Organizers believe this was a more cost effective way to begin than purchasing commercial plants.

The stems were trimmed and potted this week. Each container holds a 12-inch section that has two good buds. The rhizomes will be brought out of dormancy to grow for 60 to 90 days in a University of Missouri greenhouse, the site of Tuesday's work. The containers are labeled by collection site and will be watched to determine the best environment and characteristics for growth.

"We want to maximize survivorship and determine what is most favorable for planting," Lewis said. "This is an experiment to see whether it would be practical to try it this way."

The plants will be moved from the greenhouse to locations on the Mingo refuge.

Canebrakes serve as habitat for several associated wildlife species, including Swainson's warbler, swamp rabbits and Bachman's warbler, which is thought to be extinct, according to Mingo Supervisory Refuge Ranger Vergial Harp.

"Some of these cane associated wildlife species are as rare as the habitat they require," Harp said. "Population restoration of these wildlife species will rely on our ability to restore the habitat."

There may also be species dependent on cane that have not yet been catalogued.

Anthony Maupin, an MDC biological aid/graduate resident, has collected 6,500 insects from four Southeast Missouri cane patches over the last three years for research purposes.

More than 400 separate insects have been catalogued from those, with only a portion of the work completed. Of those, 19 were ones that had not been recorded in Missouri previously.

"Giant cane used to be monotypic, it was everywhere. The root and soil systems were so developed they could produce extremely large canebrakes, but it has become an understory species, competing with other vegetation," Maupin said. "Now all we find are cane patches."

That is why this is a project University of Missouri was eager to become involved in, according to university site manager Marie Obourn, who is with the Forestry Department.

"If we don't step up now and help these natives species, the wildlife will be in a world of hurt," Obourn said.

Reposted courtesy of the Daily American Republic Newspaper, Poplar Bluff
Story Source: Donna Farley, Staff Writer
Photo credit: Paul Davis
Originally published: March 8, 2009
Posted: April 10, 2009