News from the Chautauqua Lake and Watershed Management Alliance that the water chestnut is spreading into the Chadakoin River and to a kayak launch in Celoron should concern every person who values Chautauqua Lake.

The european water chestnut colonizes areas of freshwater lakes and ponds and slow-moving streams and rivers where it forms dense mats of floating vegetation, causing problems for boaters and swimmers and negatively impacting aquatic ecosystem functioning.

Before the Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy’s (CWC) Aquatic Invasive Species Early Detection Volunteer Task Force entered Chautauqua Lake recently for its first search of 2022, water chestnut was found near the kayak launch in Celoron. That’s a discouraging sign that the water chestnut may be spreading from locations where it has been found and removed in the past, or that other populations exist that thus far have escaped detection.

After three hours of surveying with three kayaks, the first task force paddle of the year removed more than 120 water chestnut plants. That prompted a quick scheduling of more surveys, with an Audubon Community Nature Center rapid response removal team returning to the Chadakoin River within days to remove another 200 water chestnut plants.

There is work being done to eradicate the water chestnut — and you can help. Know what the water chestnut looks like. Images are attached to this editorial at post-journal.com and can be found at nyis.info/invasive–species/water-chestnut. If you see the water chestnut in an area waterway, email WNY PRISM at wnyprism@buffalostate.edu or the Chautauqua Lake and Watershed Managemnet Alliance at twest@chautauquaalliance.org. And, make sure boats and kayaks — particularly those used in other waterbodies — are clean, drained and dried before entering Chautauqua Lake and its watershed.

Curly leaf pondweed and eurasian milfoil are bad enough for Chautauqua Lake. Water chestnuts are worse — much worse.