water chestnut

Water chestnut rosette

(SUBMITTED PHOTO)

CHICOPEE – A federal program aimed at removing invasive water chestnuts from the Chicopee River is trying to gather volunteers together for a mass river weeding on Sunday.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refugee has been working all summer with a small corps of student workers and volunteers trying to clean up water chestnuts from more than two dozen waterways throughout Western Massachusetts.

This year the agency has noticed a resurgence of the invasive plant in the area of the Chicopee River known as the Oxbow Marsh, which is off East Main Street near Sterling Street and near the former Oxford Country Club, said Cynthia Boettner, coordinator for invasive plant control for the agency.

“Year after year you know you can get it to a more manageable level. We took out 10 tons of plants the first year in the Chicopee River. It was a huge effort,” Boettner said.

That effort was in 2007 and the weeds have lessened every year since, until this summer when there was an explosion of the weed, she said.

Employees from the Silvio Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge weed out water chestnuts from a pond at the Big E in this past photograph.

Using a small number of volunteers and the youth workers, the department has been able to tackle some of the problem, but needs far more people to finish the job before the end of the summer, Boettner said.

Boettner said she is hoping on quick notice, to organize a volunteer event that would start at about 9:30 a.m. Sunday. Volunteers would meet at 377 Fuller Road, which is a deserted area of street near a pumping station.

The agency has a trailer that pulls six canoes and would be delighted if others who have their own canoes could bring them. Kayakers are also welcome, but they don’t work as well because they don’t have the capacity to carry as many plants, she said.

Volunteers are asked to register by email Boettner at cynthia_boettner@fws.gov or calling. Registration is helpful so she knows how many canoes are needed and so volunteers can get more specific directions to the hard-to-find location.

The city has also been involved in the project over the years. The Department of Public Works has picked up the bags of weeds collected and has also assisted in checking water levels and other things, City Planner Catherine L. Brown said.

Water chestnuts are invasive plants that can be a huge problem in waterways. Is one seed is released in the water, it can germinate any time in 12 years, Brown said.

“They are prolific and they have leaves that float on the surface and they can entirely cover a water body,” Boettner said. “When there is a dense covering, there is little air exchange making it difficult for fish and other wildlife to exist there.”

As the plants break down in the fall, they additionally deplete the oxygen levels, she said.

The plants grow in water that is typically stagnant or slow-moving and can grow in water that is up to 16 feet deep, Boettner said.

They are easy to remove so volunteers can typically make a lot of progress, she said.

The agency currently is trying to remove water chestnuts in 25 different sites along the Connecticut River shed and recently learned about a new infestation at the Brickyard in Westfield, Boettner said.

Much of the work is done by student crews, hired through the federal summer jobs programs, but federal budget cuts meant the size of the crews have been reduced. Students, who are now mostly back at school, also do other jobs so they are only on the water a few days a week, she said.

The agency tries to organize volunteer days asking residents to give a few hours to help remove the invasive species. It has held several on the Chicopee River, mainly augmenting the crew of students, she said.

Recently several groups such as the Connecticut River Water Council and the Friends of Lake Warner have adopted different waterways and organized regular cleanings. Those groups have been especially successful because they stay focused on one spot, she said.

The agency is also hoping to eventually attract some groups such as Boy Scout troops and local businesses whose employees want to do community service to volunteer for the cleanings, Boettner said.