Compared with its waterside associates, occurs on some of the wettest sites. Common in recently formed beaver ponds and on sites with a high water table. Beaked sedge communities have little species diversity, and invasion is limited by the dense rhizome network. Beaked sedge is usually dominant or codominant where it occurs. Deeply buried rhizomes usually survive all but the most severe fires.
Fire consumes the aboveground tissue, top-killing the plant.
The rhizomes, however, suvive most fires, even those that consume organic soils. Usually more important as feeding grounds than as nesting grounds. These produce a matted and tufted growth pattern. First a long rhizome emerges and a shoot is produced. Then, short rhizomes develop to produce a tuft of any shoots.