Water Chestnut (Trapa natans)
Water chestnut is an aquatic invasive plant native to Asia that is a nuisance in New York State and Onondaga County waterways. This plant is not the water chestnut associated with Asian cuisine. Water chestnut is a floating, annual plant that is best known for it’s attractive rosettes, thorny nutlets, and its ability to quickly crowd rivers and areas of slow moving water.

How to Identify Water Chestnut

• Floating leaves are triangular shaped with toothed edges

• Leaves are waxy on the top and hairy on the underside.
• Produces thorny four-pointed nutlets in early summer on the underside of the rosettes. The nutlets are green when attached, but turns brown and hard when drops. Look for nutlets washing ashore.
• Submersed leaves are feather like, opposite in pattern along the stem.
• Can grow in water up to 16 feet deep.

The “So-On” FactorThe most amazing thing about water chestnut is its ability to rapidly spread. One water chestnut nutlet or seed (pictured left) gives rise to 10-15 rosettes, each of which can produce 15 seeds. Those seeds in turn each produces 10-15 more rosettes, which produce more seeds and so on…

This “so-on” factor can lead just 1 water chestnut plant to grow into hundreds of plants next year!

Water chestnut is an annual plant, meaning that the only part of the plant that survives through the winter is the seed. Therefore, removing the plant before it drops its seeds can greatly reduce the number of water chestnut plants that can grow in the following years. The best way to remove water chestnut is to hand-pull it in July and early August before it drops its seeds. Hand-pulling water chestnut is easy! It’s roots are shallow, making it relatively effortless to pull it out. Unlike many other aquatic invasive species, water chestnut can not spread by fragments of the plants left behind in the water. That means that you don’t have to worry if you can’t pull out the entire plant! The most important part to remove are the rosettes, from which the seeds grow.

CCE-Onondaga’s Water Chestnut Outreach Events

The Seneca River Water Chestnut Relay Race is our unique way of raising awareness about water chestnut’s impact in the Seneca River, where water chestnut has almost completely carpeted sections of the river. Held as part of the Seneca River Days festival in Baldwinsville, this kayak and canoe relay race shows bystanders how they can get rid of this nuisance plant in a fun way. Each team has one land teammate and one paddling teammate. At the start of the race, the paddling teammates race across the river where they must hand-pull enough water chestnut to fill two baskets attached to their boats. Then they race back to the shore where the land teammates run up the beach to empty the baskets. The fastest team to do this twice wins! If you are interested in participating in next year’s relay race, check the “Upcoming Events” link on the water resources home page in early summer. View photos from past relay races here.

Each summer, CCE organizes community hand-pulls on many of the waterways where water chestnut has been identified, including Oneida Lake, Otisco Lake, the Onondaga Lake Outlet, Cross Lake and the Seneca River. We have had many helping hands at our hand-pulls including volunteers from Bass Masters, Sea Scouts, 4-H youth, Cornell University’s Shackleton Point Field Station and Adopt-A-Shoreline. Our hand-pulling efforts over the past few years have made a difference in areas where infestations are caught early while they are still small.
View photos from past hand-pulls here.

Turtle Bay in Otisco Lake, 2006	Turtle Bay in Otisco Lake, 2008

If you think you have found water chestnut in an area where you haven’t seen it before, please call us at 424-9485 so we can keep track of its spread. Then, just pull it out!

Other Resources:

• Water Chestnut Management Plan for Central New York Water Ways (PDF)

• Manuscript

• Appendices

Look for Wally the Water Chestnut at local events next summer!

Adopt-A-Shoreline

“Adopt-A-Shoreline” is a volunteer monitoring program that seeks to stop the spread of aquatic invasive species in Onondaga and Cayuga Counties in Central New York. Since 2004, many volunteers have signed up to adopt a section of shoreline to monitor for aquatic invaders. Cornell Cooperative Extension of Onondaga and Cayuga Counties trains volunteers to identify aquatic invasive plants. “Adopt-A-Shoreline” fosters the early detection of aquatic invasive species so that infestations of invasive species can be removed before they become
problematic in local aquatic ecosystems.

Volunteer Training
Once a year, Cornell Cooperative Extension offers a training session for volunteers. This workshop shows volunteers how to identify native and invasive plants. Since plant identification can be intimidating, volunteers focus on mastering the identification of the “watch weeds” that are expected to arrive in the region in the near future.

Shoreline Monitoring
After their training, Adopt-A-Shoreline volunteers monitor their shoreline at least once a year and report their findings to Cooperative Extension by filling out and sending in a monitoring report. Some volunteers like to canoe or kayak to and around their shoreline, while other volunteers stroll along their shoreline on the lookout for “watch weeds.”

Water Chestnut Hand-Pulls
Each summer, Cornell Cooperative Extension hosts a number of programs and events that are open to Adopt-A-Shoreline volunteers, as well as to members of the public who want to help stop the spread of a particularly nuisance plant called water chestnut.

Hand-pulling new infestations or small populations of water chestnut is one of the best methods of controlling the plant.
Hand-pulls take place throughout July and early August on Otisco Lake, Oneida Lake, the Onondaga Lake Outlet, the Seneca River, Cayuga Lake and Cross Lake. Many community groups have participated in hand-pulls, including 4-H youth, the Bass Masters, Junior Bass Masters, the Sea Scouts and Cornell University interns at the Shackleton Point Biological Field Station.

Rain Barrel Pilot Study

Marie McDonough of Skaneateles learns about her rain barrel before it’s installation at her home
In summer 2008, five homeowners in Skaneateles, Dewitt and Moravia trialed rain barrels as part of a rain barrel pilot study. The goal of the project was to figure out which rain barrel models work best and to see how homeowners used the rain barrels in their backyards. The homeowners trialed the barrels from June to September and used a special calendar to track the daily rainfall and how much water they used from the barrel. CCE educators followed up with the homeowners throughout the study the get their feedback about what they liked and didn’t like about their rain barrel. Data from the calendars, comments from the homeowners and our observations of the rain barrels in September were used to rate the performance of each barrel. The rain barrels were rated according to the following criteria:

1. Functional Overflow: the barrel’s overflow diverter effectively prevented the barrel’s lid from overflowing during heavy rainstorms.

2. Convenience of Spigot: water was able to flow out of the main spigot; the placement of the spigot on the barrel was positioned at a convenient height for also filling up watering cans and other containers.

3. Quality Construction: the barrel was constructed of durable materials

4. No Leaks: the barrel had no leaks and was able to contain water inside the barrel for an extended period of time

5. Removable Lid: the barrel’s lid could be removed for cleaning, retrieving debris inside or for checking the barrel’s water level.

6. Secure Screen: the mesh screen on the lid was able to keep everything besides rainwater out of the barrel.

The barrel received one star for each category in which it performed well.
Here are the final results!

Although not every rain barrel received a 6-star rating, all of the homeowners enjoyed having a rain barrel. Here are some of their comments:

• “[The Rain Catcher] is easy to use and a source of free water.” - Kris Scholl, Moravia

• “I really like that my rain barrel is preventing water from flowing into the lake.” - Carolyn Widas of Skaneateles speaking about her faux wood grain rain barrel.
• “I love, love, love my rain barrel!” - Marie McDonough of Skaneateles. Despite it’s leaks, Marie plans to use the rain barrel again next year because she “loves the way the barrel looks” installed in her front yard garden.
• “I like that it’s attractive and pretty easily hidden.” - Karen Campbell of DeWitt commenting on her octagonal shaped rain barrel

More Information

• Homeowners Reviews

• Barrel Specifications
• Final Report

Follow the Homeowner’s Experiences!
Read articles from the Skaneateles Journal published during the pilot study.

• March 2008

• June 2008
• July 2008
• October 2008

Getting Started

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ABOUT THE ONONDAGA EARTH CORPS

Onondaga Earth Corps (OEC) was formed in 2005, as a partnership between Cornell Cooperative Extension of Onondaga County (CCE) and the Southside Neighborhood Action Group (SNAG). That year, OEC youth helped lead the largest volunteer tree planting in response to the 1998 Labor Day Storm.