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This is a small marsh just to the side of Highway 417 near Ottawa, and one of the few between the Quebec border and Ottawa not infested with “purple loosestrife”. Purple loosestrife is a large European plant with a purple flower. At some point it was brought here where it has choked out the native cattails, sedges and rushes. Which, in turn, kills off the species which live on those plants.

Technical Stuff: We stopped because my grandfather needed to take a nap. So if you want to get a shot like this it’s important to first have a 86-year old man in the car with you… and it’s vital that he has missed his post-lunch nap. I played with the exposure settings a little, if this was a regular SLR the aperture would have been open one f-stop. I really like the texture and colour of the water… and it looks like a little pool surrounded by rushes.

The loosestrife thing has gotten so bad municipalities are sponsoring “Loosestrife Control Days” where volunteers go into wetlands and tear the plants out. In Thunder Bay, Ontario the Lakehead Region Conservation Authority has been experimenting with introducing Galerucella beetles into loosestrife contaminated wetlands, the beetles apparently eat nothing but loosestrife… which is weird.

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