Resultados positivos en la lucha contra el carrizo en el Saladar de Jandía

A week after the first saltwater flooding, the combined action with clearing shows a clear decrease in the regrowth capacity of the invasive plant

The saltwater tanks of the Cabildo once again submerge the rhizome of the reed under 75 cubic meters of water in a test area of 1,200 square meters as part of the ‘Fuerteventura, beautiful by nature’ program

A week after the start of the pilot test to control the invasion of reed in the protected area of Saladar de Jandía, as part of the ‘Fuerteventura, beautiful by nature’ program, the Cabildo has obtained the first results. The medium-term strategy involves the weekly implementation of two combined techniques: the clearing of the already sprouted reed and the suffocation of the resulting rhizome through flooding with saltwater. The initial data show a «positive control» of the invasive population.

The president of the Cabildo, Lola García, has explained that «this pilot experience is a strong commitment to finding a solution to the invasion of this type of cane, which not only displaces species from the native ecosystem but also severely affects the natural water flow, posing a flood risk to urbanizations and tourist establishments in the area.»

The Infrastructure Councilor, Blas Acosta, recalls that the proliferation of these invasive cane fields can form very dense colonies up to six meters high that «could pose a risk to the ecosystem of Saladar de Jandía, the largest wetland of its kind in the Canary Islands, as well as constitute a flood threat to the urban area, especially for commercial and tourist activities.»

The teams have returned to clear and flood, a week later, the 1,200 square meters of the designated area for the pilot test. They have also verified on-site that the flooded reed loses some of the high regrowth capacity it has in other areas of Saladar de Jandía, where it has been cleared weekly but not flooded with saltwater.

It is undoubtedly a qualitative leap in the control strategy over the invasive reed of Saladar de Jandía. The Cabildo de Fuerteventura, through the Environmental Service, the Works and Machinery Service, and its own medium Gestión y Planeamiento Territorial y Medioambiental (Gesplan), initiated last week the pilot program that combines clearing with saltwater flooding of 1,200 square meters of Saladar invaded by the reed.

The initial results of this pilot project, included in the ‘Fuerteventura, beautiful by nature’ program, determine that this procedure is capable of suffocating the plant’s rhizome (the underground stem, once the cane is cut) and thus controlling its expansion in this protected natural area of scientific interest.

The pilot experience is a strong commitment to finding a solution to the invasion of this type of cane, which not only displaces species from the native ecosystem but also severely affects the natural water flow, posing a flood risk to urbanizations and tourist establishments in the area.

Currently, Saladar de Jandía maintains a delicate balance with this plant species, classified as invasive. The Cabildo de Fuerteventura carried out clearing work of the Arundo donax or common reed last December to establish a weekly control over the reed since then.

However, the plant’s proliferation capacity showed that clearing work did not achieve the desired control result, so this pilot experience of saltwater flooding, about 75 cubic meters, was established to suffocate the rhizome.

The Arundo donax is included in the list of the one hundred most harmful invasive exotic species in the world, drawn up by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Importance of Saladar de Jandía

Saladar de Jandía is one of the natural wonders of the island of Fuerteventura. It is a protected natural area of scientific interest, declared as such in 1994 by the Government of the Canary Islands. The purpose of this declaration was to preserve the best representation of this peculiar coastal ecosystem of the island, which is scarce in the archipelago.

This wetland constitutes almost the only representation of the ecosystem known as thermoatlantic halophytic shrubland, consisting of a plant community that withstands periodic flooding caused by high tides.

The ocean, in the continuous ebb and flow of the tides, acts as a determining element of this unique community. It is common for this area, hundreds of meters inland from the coastline at low tide, to be flooded with seawater during high tide, forming curious brine pools when the water begins to evaporate due to solar action.