Invasive Removal: Everwild Land Trust volunteers remove water chestnut from outlet
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The Everwild Land Trust continues to deal with another invasive species on Chautauqua Lake.
Earlier in the summer the non-profit was on the forefront of efforts to remove starry stonewort from the lake. Now, Everwild Land Trust volunteers are dealing with a "large amount" of water chestnut in the outlet near Celoron.
"So far this summer, we have conducted three aquatic invasive species surveys and one water chestnut pull in Chautauqua Lake with the help of WNY PRISM," the Everwild Land Trust said in a Facebook post earlier this week. "Visibility has been a challenge due to algal blooms, making surveys difficult. We haven't found any concerning species in any of the surveys, but did find a large amount of water chestnut in the outlet. We've removed some of the water chestnut patch and plan to pull the rest later in the season."
Water chestnut is an aquatic invasive plant that is native to Eurasia and Africa. It was introduced in the United States in the mid-1800s as an ornamental plant. Water chestnut colonizes shallow areas of freshwater lakes and ponds and slow-moving streams and rivers and negatively impacts aquatic ecosystems and water recreation. It's located in 40 counties in New York state and has been found in the Chautauqua Lake watershed for nearly 20 years. Water chestnut plants form dense mats of vegetation that are rooted in the sediment at the bottom of the waterbody, growing all the way to the surface of the water. They produce fruits that have very sharp spines with barbs. These travel downstream, spreading seeds, and can be found on the bottom of waterways and along the shoreline.
For the past several years, the Everwild Land Trust, with funding assistance from the Chautauqua Lake & Watershed Management Alliance, has held a series of public programs focused on these invasive plants. Targeted education and outreach efforts have helped the Everwild Land Trust train volunteers in the identification of invasive species through online and in-person training sessions.
In 2025, CWC conducted 13 on-water surveys across 10 sites, which confirmed the extent of two historic starry stonewort sites, led to the discovery of brittle naiad at two new locations, and identified the current extent of water chestnut in the Chautauqua Lake outlet. During a public paddle on the Chadakoin River, 400 water chestnut plants were removed while a number of potential hotspot sites were monitored to ensure no new threats were developing.