On November 17th, 2009, Stan Cruden gave a presentation to four representatives of DEC on the mechanical cutting of water chestnuts and explained that leaflets should cut off in the spring and early summer before nutlets develop - not after nutlets form. Water chestnuts are annuals that depend entirely on seed for propagation. Although the nutlets germinate over a period of several years, most of them sprout the next year so early, annual cutting is the best method of control. The method promoted by DEC and most commercial firms is to wait until the nutlets begin to form on the leaflets and then pull the entire plant out by the roots. Stan explained that this approach yields large volumes of leaflets, nutlets and mud clinging to the roots. Since most of the nutlets are viable, they must be removed from the plants and destroyed. Mechanical cutting of early leaflets avoids all of those problems. In fact, even leaflet disposal is no problem because, when cut off from the stem during their rapid growing phase, they wither rapidly and drop to the bottom.

Representatives from DEC complimented Stan on his presentation and agreed to write a letter to the Kinderhook Lake Corporation permitting mechanical cutting of water chestnuts from June 1 to August 1. Cutting beyond that date would require a Permit. Thanks, Stan, for a job well done!

Stan deserves another accolade because he recently repaired the pontoons on the cutter boat that were damaged when the boat went over the dam last summer. The boat has now been returned to the launce site and will be equipped with a new cutter assembly in the Spring to begin cutting in June. Residents around the lake will be asked to bring their small boats, canoes and kayaks up to the north end of the lake on Saturday mornings for two hours to help clip the leaflets of water chestnut plants which cannot be reached by the cutter boat. By using this dual approach of mechanical cutting and hand clipping of early leaflets for several years, we hope to essentially remove all water chestnut plants from the lake. It has been done in several bays already and should work at the north end as well.
 

In the October KLC Newsletter, which can be read and downloaded, there is an article reviewing the status of fish in Kinderhook Lake, particularly the white perch. Prompted by the decrease in numbers of largemouth bass and bluegills, KLC requested that the Fisheries Division of NYDEC repeat a fish-netting study that had been performed in 1984 to determine the population of fish. The results indicated that the population of white perch has increased five-fold while those of all other fish caught in the nets had decreased. Since bass and bluegills tend not to be caught in the nets, it provided no information about them but it did show that the numbers of white perch have increased dramatically. This is of great concern because white perch feed in the spring in large schools on the eggs and fry of other fish, particularly those that spawn along shorelines, like largemouth bass and bluegills. In fact, some States have initiated programs to remove white perch from lakes. Next year, KLC will initiate a number of programs to bring the fish populations back into a more health condition. However, fisherman should still be delighted with Kinderhook Lake for there are still many large-mouths and increasing numbers of small-mouths which spawn in deeper water and their fry hide in the rocks, not long shorelines.

At one time, water chestnuts, which multiply rapidly in shallow water, were a threat to Kinderhook Lake. By modifying a cutter boat to cut off the leaflets of the plants when they first appear in the spring and early summer, a KLC Member reduced the number of plants by about 99%. There are still thousands of plants at the north end of the lake but they are in control in the rest of the lake. When that cutter boat went over the dam during the heavy rainstorm this summer, KLC must decide whether or not to replace or repair the boat. Since NYDEC’s current policy is that mechanical cutting is not permitted, a meeting is being arranged with them to discuss the issue before any actions are taken with respect to the boat. Since water chestnut is an annual, rather than perennial and depends on seeding each year to produce new plants, cutting the seed-producing leaflets is an effective way of controlling the plant rather than manually pulling up the entire messy plant. Hopefully, we will be able to make NYDEC understand how the threat was brought into control on the lake years ago and why it is important to cut and harvest in the spring rather than manually pull or use toxic herbicides in the summer. Anyone who has had practical experience with water chestnuts realizes that they are not very sensitive to herbicides and that it is almost impossible to manually pull thousands of them.