Greening waste beds with sewage created dense Phragmites monocultures

Evidence

Norm Richards’s help appeal started something back in the 1970s. If nutrients and seed were all it took to green the waste beds, the city had a ready answer. Slopping sewage sludge onto the terraces of the waste beds provided both nutrients for plant growth and a disposal solution for the output of the water treatment plant. The result was the nightmare swards of Phragmites, a dense monoculture of invasive reeds, ten feet high, that excludes all other forms of life. Stop #2 on our tour. The sign reads: Land as Property. If land is just private property, a mine of “resources,” then you can do whatever you want with it and move on. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 1208

Categorization

• XREF: Environmental racism/environmental justice thread: a city solved its wastewater problem by dumping sewage sludge on Indigenous-held sacred land, matching ch77’s Solvay waste story. — connects to: Monoculture management and fire exclusion promote insect-induced vegetation mortality — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 1582

Broader Connections

• Monoculture management and fire exclusion promote insect-induced vegetation mortality #qualifies (0.72) — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 1582