The executive director of the Seine/Rat River Conservation District says new research shows rotting cattails are the biggest culprit behind rising phosphorus levels in Lake Winnipeg. Jodi Goerzen says this is the latest research from the Institute for Sustainable Development. She says rotting cattails are the result of ditches that are mown every year. Goerzen says this information led her to apply for a grant on behalf of three conservation districts to study ways to fix the problem.

"About 60 per cent of the phosphorus is actually coming from natural sources and those natural sources are like cattails in ditches which get mowed every year. The cattails usually get left in the ditches to decompose and to add phosphorus to the waterways. So our proposal is to just go behind the mowers and to take up those cattails and bale them or compost them or use them as biomass in wood-burning stoves and alternatively use that phosphorus."

Goerzen applied for a grant from the North American Partnership for Environmental Community Action. Her application was awarded the top grant of nine grants that were approved. In fact, it was the only Canadian project to receive funding, the others being in the U.S. and Mexico.

"The grant is a total of $52,807 U.S. and that leaves us with about $20,000 (Cdn) for our district. I applied to have three conservation districts involved. So it's our conservation district, East Interlake, which is just around Lake Winnipeg and then Whitemud Conservation District, which is in the middle of western Manitoba. So all three of us are going to be piloting this out to figure out the best way we can use these cattails, to get them out of the ditches and to reduce that phosphorus loading into Lake Winnipeg."

She notes research has found that each 4-by-6 bale of cattails contains two-to-four pounds of phosphorus which adds up quickly. Goerzen adds they will work out the details of the pilot project in the New Year.

"We're going to be starting to do some meetings this winter and showcasing some workshops, talking about the project and networking with the participants that want to be a part of this. We're going to be looking for landowners who want to bale the cattails and haul them away and also municipalities that are going to be mowing their ditches so we can coordinate harvesting out the cattails at the time of peak time of the phosphorus in late August or early September."

The North American Partnership for Environmental Community Action was created by the Council of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation to support North America-wide environmental efforts through partnerships with a broad base of hands-on groups and organizations in communities throughout Canada, Mexico and the United States. The projects will play an important role in achieving the CEC’s priorities by supporting healthy communities and ecosystems, encouraging activities that address climate change through the transition to a low-carbon economy, and advancing innovative projects that could assist in greening the economies of the three countries. The Council of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation supports small, nonprofit, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Canada, Mexico and the United States that work closely with local communities and indigenous groups to create a shared sense of responsibility for stewardship of the environment. A trilateral selection committee decided on nine projects from almost 300 proposals.