Kinmen, Taiwan’s famed defense outpost, has been prepared for more than half a century to defend against a military invasion by China. While no enemy troops have crossed the waters in that time, a strain of salt-marsh grass has infiltrated the island and threatens its coastal ecology.
The Kinmen County Government on Tuesday launched a battle against “smooth cord grass,” urging county residents to join the fight to protect the island’s coastal ecological system.
More than 100 county government officials, agricultural experts, Kinmen National Park rangers and representatives of local community development associations attended a training program organized by the county government to learn how to weed out the grass, an invasive species that has already swallowed 10 hectares of beaches along the northern coast.
The grass, a native of the Atlantic coast of the US, is a medium-to-large-sized saltwater plant that grows in wetlands.
The Kinmen Public Works Bureau said the plant was introduced to China in 1979 because of its saltwater-resistant nature. Its solid stems and roots can help shore up sandy seashores or riverbanks.
Unexpectedly, however, the plant, which grows quickly and has high adaptability, rapidly took control of China’s southern coastal areas, drying out salt marshes along the coast and turning beaches into solid land with interlocked woven stem vines, and obstructing ships from sailing into harbors.
The stubborn grass was brought to Kinmen by sea tides, waves and migrant birds about 10 years ago and soon found a new home on the island’s sandy beaches and tidal flats, the bureau said.
Since then, the grass has triggered an unprecedented ecological disaster in Kinmen, Kinmen County Government Secretary-General Lu Chih-huei (盧志輝) said.
A mangrove wetland on the mouth of Kinmen’s Wuchiang River is facing the greatest threat from the plant, Lu said.
“It has not only blocked the navigational route and worsened the quality of sea water, but also triggered a red tide. Local people see it as a pest,” he said.
The local government’s field surveys show that the non-native grass has dried part of the wetland and because of its strong grip on beaches, the grass obstructs the natural activities of crabs and even threatens the survival of other coastal organisms, such as mudskippers.
Last year, the county government began a weeding program, but it failed because officials did not realize the grass cannot be killed without having its roots pulled out.
Opting not to use weed killers or herbicides to avoid another and possibly greater ecological disaster, the county government has been searching for a way to get rid of the hostile invader, Lu said.
After months of tests on possible measures to stop the stubborn grass from spreading, officials finally found that the best way to destroy the plant was to pull out its roots and then bury them in a 3m deep hole.
Experts have found the grass cannot grow at such a depth, Lu said.
The county government is hoping local residents can help it remove the pest for good.
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