Water Chestnut Pledge Card!

The water chestnut is so prolific that one acre one year will produce 100 acres the following year (http://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/Home/Topics/InvasiveSpecies/Details.aspx?PostID=1995). In 2014, volunteers spent over 150 volunteer hours removing water chestnut across five days in Braddock Bay, an important wetland in a NYS DEC Fish and Wildlife Management Area west of Rochester, NY. In 2015, the Finger Lakes-Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management (FL-PRISM), Genesee Valley Audubon Society, NYS B.A.S.S. Nation, NYS DEC, and US Fish and Wildlife Service (US FWS) pulled an estimated six tons from the same location, seriously depleting the seed bank in this location. While these efforts were commendable in Braddock Bay, new populations were recently discovered in a hydrologically connected wetland to Braddock Bay, the Genesee River, and in the Finger Lakes, namely Cayuga Lake. These discoveries were made because of increased awareness of aquatic invasive species through engagement and training by the FL-PRISM and because there has been increased media attention to invasive species in the region. Left untouched, populations of water chestnut will become the dominant plant in these waterbodies and remain an incubator for additional infestations elsewhere in the Great Lakes Basin due to their prolific seed production and dispersal (http://www.dnr.state.md.us/bay/sav/water_chestnut.asp.) The summer of 2016 is likely to see a reoccurrence of water chestnut in locations such as Braddock Bay, while new populations will be reported as the community becomes engaged in identification and rapid response procedures for water chestnut.

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