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The Chautauqua Lake and Watershed Management Alliance wasn't awarded funding in 2025 through the state Invasive Species grant program.
Board members learned recently that there wasn't a problem with the alliance's application. The problem is there are a lot of other lakes that face many of the same issues the Chautauqua Lake faces. In fact, the DEC told alliance officials that there were three times as many applications for the 2025 grant as there were for the previous round.
In our opinion, the 2027 state budget needs to include additional funding to deal with invasive species on the state's lakes and waterways. The fact that applications for the program tripled shows there is a need for additional funding to protect the state's lakes and waterways. It's something we think should be a priority in Gov. Kathy Hochul's 2027 budget proposal.
Helping Chautauqua Lake projects score higher in order to receive a portion of that additional funding is a more difficult problem to solve. The alliance has also learned that Chautauqua Lake applications for state funding to deal with invasive species don't score well in the criteria that evaluates whether or not Chautauqua Lake is a disadvantaged area, the acreage of infestation and state/regional tier rankings.
The state scoring criteria places greater emphasis on newly discovered infestations rather than infestations that have been ongoing for more than five years and for infestations that are more than five acres or more than 5% of the waterbody’s acreage. Projects that treat less than 50% of an infested area are also looked upon less favorably than proposals to treat 50% or more of an infested area. Projects included in areas that are considered economically disadvantaged also receive a boost in the scoring criteria.
In short, the lake is penalized because we are dealing with either longstanding invasive species like curly leaf pondweed or Eurasian watermilfoil or small infestations like water chestnut or starry stonewort that require management. And even our smaller infestations have roots going back a few years.
One reason Chautauqua Lake is so important is that it largely does not fall in an economically disadvantaged area. It's important to protect the lake so that it does not become economically disadvantaged. The DEC told alliance members recently that the DEC is open to hearing recommendations about the Invasive Species grant scoring criteria. We hope scoring for future Invasive Species grants can be made more friendly to Chautauqua Lake, because if the funding doesn't come from the state, it has to come from local property owners who weren't friendly to the last attempt to create a local funding stream for Chautauqua Lake.