That’s undisputed. Where the mess came from is another matter entirely.

Thousands of what appear to be bamboo sticks that may actually be Japanese knotweed, tree trunks, logs and yard debris litter the thousands of yards of shoreline.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Nick Bryant, the property manager of the Chautauqua Shoreline Apartments complex. “You can clearly see that some of these tree trunks and larger logs have chainsaw cuts on them, which leads me to believe someone cut these down.

Jay Young, Chautauqua Lake and Watershed Alliance communications coordinator, reviewed pictures of the debris field and said what appears to be bamboo may actually be Japanese knotweed, which is native to eastern Asia and was introduced to North America as a horticultural plant in the late 19th century. It can grow in a wide range of habitats including riparian areas, wetlands, roadsides, ditches, and fence lines. It forms dense thickets of bamboo-like vegetation that aggressively outcompetes native plants and negatively impacts wetland and riparian areas. This invasive plant has hollow, smooth, purple to green coloured stems up to 2.5 centieters in diameter.

Thousands of bamboo sticks, tree trunks, logs, and yard debris washed up along the Chautauqua Lake shoreline near Celoron recently. P-J photo by Christopher Blakeslee

“It is hard to know for sure, but some of the bamboo-looking debris may actually be from Japanese knotweed (a common invasive plant that grows on land), which we have quite a lot of around here,” Young said.

However, while the debris fields are currently pushed up along the lake’s shoreline and do not appear to be a hazard to navigation, other safety factors are being questioned.

“The storm drainage system (that takes rainwater runoff off the streets) all looked completely clogged with these bamboo sticks,” said Bryant. “I don’t see how any water can possibly move through them.”

A local fisherman witnessed what he believes is yard waste deposited on Celoron’s lakefront on Tuesday. Because of the way the currents flow, the waste moved down the lake to its current position.

“It looked, and I kid you not – like an aircraft carrier moving past the hotel (Harbor Hotel) and around the bend,” said Richard Dorsey, 63, of Lakewood. “I was fishing out here before the ‘storm’ hit, and this debris field just went floating by. It must have been 400 yards long, maybe 30 feet wide. It was amazing. I’ve never seen anything like this, and I’ve been fishing this lake since I was nine.”

Celoron Clerk/Treasurer Shirley Sanfilippo expressed surprise when pictures of the lakefront shorelines were shown to her.

“No one has reported this to us. However, I will inform our Director of the Department of Public Works (DPW) about this,” she said.

Mary Hackford, a Chautauqua Shoreline Apartments complex resident, asked, “Who is responsible for this? Who is going to pay for the clean-up?”