Jug Bay Site 1

The first place we canoed to contained a plant called phragmitous. Phragmitious are broad leaf plants that grow in the high marsh areas and are very common in wetlands. However phragmitous is invasive to Jug Bay. The Phragmitious flowers bloom in the mid summer in dark purple panicle. The plant can grow up to 6 meters high it has a long life span. The high marsh is out of the water the longest of all of the wetland zones; it is out for 8-9 hours of the day. Ideally in an ecosystem you want it to have many different types of plants but because phragmitous is invasive, it has created a monoculture; which is where there is one dominate plant. To have a healthy ecosystem it is important to have a variety of plants so that it will attract a variety of different animals and organisms with it. In the winter months plants in the low marsh tend to break down into carbon dioxide and water.
(http://www.invasiveplants.net/phragmites/STSP/whatsphrag.htm)

First canoeing site coordinates: 

N38 47.066 W76 42.768 with an elevation of -7