Seneca River Water Chestnut Removal Project

29 July 08

Salt City Bassmasters members; Pat Grady & Mike Wall, N.Y.B.C.F. President Mike Cusano and Conservation Director Burnie Haney partnered with Cornell Cooperative Extension and one Oneida Lake Association member for the annual Water Chestnut removal project.

This year the Seneca River was targeted with the group pulling from approximately 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. During the four hour period the group removed 43 bags estimated at 1,290 lbs., and that’s a lot of Water Chestnuts

L-R : Mike Wall & Amy Samuels, Pat Grady & Denise Williams and in the canoe are Robert Griffiths & Christine Moskell

Mike Cusano at work

Mike Wall loads the front deck of his boat

Burnie Haney with his hands full

Water Chestnuts from the target area

L-R Standing: Robert Griffiths, Mike Wall, Burnie Haney, Christine MoskellKneeling: Mike Cusano & Pat Grady

Eight people worked for a four hour period and removed almost 1300 pounds of Water Chestnuts. Imagine what can happen when 25 people work together for a full eight hour day. The collective efforts of just a few committed individuals can truly change the entire ecosystem of a given watershed.

Make no mistake about it, Water Chestnuts are an invasive species and left unchecked they can quickly multiply and choke off an entire shoreline. One of the best methods of control is to simply pull the plants out of the water wherever you see them. In areas that are totally saturated with concentrations extending for ¼ to ½ mile along the shoreline a mechanical harvester can work wonders. Unfortunately not all user groups have banned together to contain the spread of this plant and that’s resulted in limited funding to hire commercial harvesters.

Regardless of political differences or select agendas the N.Y.B.C.F. will continue to pursue our agenda of habitat improvement for all user groups.

Today that was accomplished by good old fashion manual labor.