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Suited for Flood Control

As we as a community think about improvements we want for Route 146, I have a suggestion to help control the increase of flooding: stop cutting back the phragmites (common reeds). They are ideally suited for flood control. Many people want them taken out because of their label as an “invasive” plant, but in my research as a biology professor at Wheelock College, I’ve come to understand that for this plant, the label “invasive” is more tied to politics than biology and ecology. However we want to describe phragmites, we do need them now. These wetland emergent plants consume and act as a reservoir for large amounts of water, which means less spillage on our roadways.

I’m not particularly comfortable expressing an opinion on a controversial issue, but as an undergraduate, I studied with Professor William Neiring, an internationally recognized expert on the ecology of wetlands and tidal marshes (Connecticut College and Wesleyan). Niering, who passed away in 1999, told us there’d likely be a time in life when we’d need to speak out on a wetlands issue, and I’m doing so now in his honor. And because I’d like to be able to reliably drive to my home in Sachem’s Head on functional roadways during high tide.

Sara Levine

Guilford