USDA taking applications for Cattail eradication

BISMARCK, N.D. – Federal wildlife officials are taking applications from farmers who want the government to remove cattail-infested wetlands, the preferred habitat of sunflower-snacking blackbirds.

Phil Mastrangelo, the state director for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services agency, said applications will be accepted from Wednesday until June.

More than 60,000 acres of cattail marshes in North Dakota have been destroyed since 1991, to try to keep blackbirds from attacking sunflower fields, he said.

Cattail eradication leaves blackbirds without a place to nest or roost and makes them more vulnerable to predators, said Larry Kleingartner, executive director of the Bismarck-based National Sunflower Association.

"It has been the most effective tool we have in dealing with blackbirds," he said.

Last year in North Dakota, about 3,700 acres of wetlands in seven counties were treated, Mastrangelo said.

A herbicide is applied in late summer from a helicopter, at a cost to the government of about $22 an acre, Mastrangelo said. The agency had hoped to treat double the amount of wetlands last year but the cost of the herbicide doubled, he said.

"The increased cost in herbicide reduced the amount of acres we could treat," Mastrangelo said.

The amount of acres that will be treated this year is still unknown, he said.

"We won't know for at least a couple of months if the herbicide stabilizes in price, goes up or hopefully goes down," he said.

The program targets only cattails on private land and is free to sunflower farmers.
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Man i wish there was a program like that here we have endless acres of that crap here including on my land, now it's also good nesting for pheasants but they can nest in other areas that they can nest, i sure hope to see this here some time soon.

I used to see cattails everywhere around home but folks picked them all for flower arrangements and such.

Young cattail root are good eating, taste a little like sweet potato"