| Actual Results Fortin Consulting worked with the City of Superior, Wisconsin to conduct a biological control program for purple loosestrife along the Pokegama River. The program has been remarkably successful in reducing purple loosestrife health and abundance throughout the corridor. The City chose a very aggressive approach and raised 175 to 213 pots of beetles each year, far beyond that of a typical loosestrife control project. Fortin Consulting directed the program, which initially involved some volunteers in raising the beetles. FCI worked with the City to dig the loosestrife for raising the beetles, and with the releases. FCI staff collected the beetles for raising. FCI also conducted plant inventories to determine the success of the program. There were three consecutive years of beetle releases from 2002 - 2004, with vegetation surveys each year through 2005 to track the progress of the control efforts. Six release sites and 4 observation sites were chosen along a two mile reach of the Pokegama River. In 2004, due to high control in release sites, releases were expanded to sites in-between the six original release sites. The results of the program are outstanding. All six of the release sites showed reductions in the abundance of purple loosestrife, some of them down to 0% loosestrife. In all cases, insect damage was evident on the remaining plants, many to the point that they were unlikely to survive, let alone bloom. The reduction in purple loosestrife and return of the native plants is very obvious visually. If you had paddled this stretch of river in 2002 it would have been purple. If you paddle it today it is mostly green. You have to search to find the small patches of purple that still exist, and many of these are composed of Fire Weed or Joe Pye Weed. At the boat landing across from site 3, the difference is amazing. There was a large infestation of purple loosestrife prior to the control project. In fact it was the first source for digging loosestrife plants. Now there is no purple loosestrife there. Four observations sites were selected between the release sites to help determine if the beetles would move to these areas and to be used to compare the effects of the beetles. The monitoring indicated that beetles had moved into some of these areas and were reducing the abundance of purple loosestrife in these sites as well as the release sites. The 4 sites in the middle of the two mile reach showed the greatest control of purple loosestrife. In addition to successful control of purple loosestrife, the surveys indicated that the diverse native vegetation that exists along the Pokegama River is returning to the formerly infested areas. The photos below illustrate the extent of the purple loosestrife infestation before and after treatment at three of the ten sites. The sign post visible in both photos is in the same location.   Biological Control of Purple Loosestrife on the Pokegama River in Superior Wisconsin for all release and observation sites from 2002 - 2005 Note: the sites labeled with a "d" are downstream of the numbered sites and were not release sites (except for limited releases at site 5d and near 2d in 2004). 
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