Invasive Species Highlight: Water Chestnut

Water chestnut has invaded waterways from Canada to Virginia along the East Coast since its introduction in the 1870s. Water chestnut can be identified by its triangular serrated floating leaves arranged in a rosette pattern, radiating from a central stalk. The stalk is rooted to the bottom substrate and covered in feathery submersed leaves.

These particular plants grow in extremely tight proximity to one another, crowding out desirable native plant species, negatively impacting the aquatic ecosystem and making it difficult to utilize waterbodies for boating and swimming.

Preventative lake management tactics are recommended to help avoid water chestnut infestations as each rosette can produce up to twenty spiked nutlets which allow populations to explode in a few short seasons.

There are, however, management options available for helping control water chestnut. When the infestation is limited, it is possible to control it through hand pulling efforts. Larger infestation can be controlled via mechanical harvesting, ideally performed prior to nutlet formation and maturation to limit spread.

However, if the growth is too extensive or access to the waterbody is limited, a herbicide treatment program performed by an aquatic management professional may be the preferred management approach.

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SOLitude Lake Management is a nationwide environmental firm committed to providing sustainable solutions that improve water quality, enhance beauty, preserve natural resources and reduce our environmental footprint. SOLitude’s team of aquatic resource management professionals specializes in the development and execution of customized lake, pond, wetland and fisheries management programs that include water quality testing and restoration, nutrient remediation, algae and aquatic weed control, installation and maintenance of fountains and aeration systems, bathymetry, mechanical harvesting and hydro-raking, lake vegetation studies, biological assessments, habitat evaluations, and invasive species management. Services and educational resources are available to clients nationwide, including homeowners associations, multi-family and apartment communities, golf courses, commercial developments, ranches, private landowners, reservoirs, recreational and public lakes, municipalities, drinking water authorities, parks, and state and federal agencies. SOLitude Lake Management is a proud member of the Rentokil Steritech family of companies in North America.