Prepared by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. Adoption of the Recovery Strategy for the Horsetail Spike-rush (Eleocharis equisetoides) in Canada (Environment Canada, 2006)

The Endangered Species Act, 2007 (ESA) requires the Minister of Natural Resources to ensure recovery strategies are prepared for all species listed as endangered or threatened on the Species at Risk in Ontario (SARO) List. Under the ESA, a recovery strategy may incorporate all or part of an existing plan that relates to that species.

Horsetail Spike-rush is listed as endangered on the SARO List. The species is also listed as endangered under the federal Species at Risk Act (SARA). Environment Canada prepared the Recovery Strategy for Horsetail Spike-rush in Canada in October, 2006 to meet their requirements under the SARA. This recovery strategy is hereby adopted under the ESA. With the additions indicated below, the enclosed strategy meets all of the content requirements outlined in the ESA.

The identification of critical habitat is not a component of a recovery strategy prepared under the ESA. However, it is recommended that the areas of critical habitat identified in this recovery strategy be considered when developing a habitat regulation under the ESA.

Executive summary

Prepared by Environment Canada

Horsetail spike-rush (Eleocharis equisetoides) is an aquatic plant in the sedge family that is found primarily within the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains and is known from a single location in Canada. Little is understood about the specific biological requirements of this species, which grows in organic substrate in a pond between forested dunes at Long Point National Wildlife Area in southwestern Ontario.

The sole occurrence of horsetail spike-rush in Canada lies within a federally protected area, and there are no demonstrated anthropogenic threats to the species or its habitat. Possible threats include invasion by the common reed (Phragmites australis), a susceptibility to stochastic impacts, browsing by white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), changes in water levels, and genetic loss. Critical habitat for this species is identified as the area occupied by the stand of culms and the shoreline buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) – red osier dogwood (Cornus stolonifera) thicket swamp community in which it occurs. The extent of the shoreline community should be mapped.

The recovery of horsetail spike-rush is considered technically and biologically feasible. The recovery goal is to maintain the single known occurrence of horsetail spike-rush at or near its recorded areal extent of 5-10 m2. Recovery objectives include:

  • monitoring the population and suspected threats, to assess trends and severity of threats;
  • investigating common reed management methods and implementing appropriate responses;
  • investigating seed viability, archiving techniques, and rhizome propagation, and, if considered feasible, collecting and preserving seeds or propagating rhizomes;
  • completing critical habitat mapping and ensuring critical habitat protection;
  • investigating and verifying any reported new locations of horsetail spike-rush; and
  • determining the tolerance of horsetail spike-rush to water-level fluctuation, the minimum viable population and the viability of the extant site, and, the extent to which lost of genetic diversity poses a threat to the species.

A number of specific actions and evaluation methods are also outlined within the strategy.

This approach to the recovery of horsetail spike-rush will not have any anticipated negative effects on other species at risk. Management of common reed may have an impact on other species, but this may be minimized through the selection of a non-chemical control method.

An action plan will be developed for horsetail spike-rush by 2008.