chapter 355
Invasive Species
7/20/2014
foreign invaders
So, it all started out as a peaceful July 4, 2014, a day that will live in infamy. While touring the steamboat rally in
Waterford I crossed the Mohawk and stumbled upon this beach front invasion. At first it seemed like a nice seashell beach, but upon closer inspection It was revealed to be a sneak attack by the dreaded Zebra Mussel. These Russian/Ukrainian Caspian & Black Sea region invaders have been oozing into New York for quite some time. In the 1990's I worked on some management control plans at DEC with the Univ. Buffalo Sea Grant and the Great Lakes Consortium. There is a certain inevitability to alien species. One learns to adapt to them. This beach is on the inside of the confluence of the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers where the natural eddy currents can deposit lighter sediments.
This is right across the river from the Troy Yacht Club. They are abundant here in this one spot but they aren't really prevalent along the shoreline. Most people would not even know they are around.
The living organisms can clog water pipe intakes and create havoc. Squishing the shells underneath my feet gave me a sense of power like stepping on those ruskies.
But we have many more native pests creeping into our environment. Spent an adventurous morning pulling these rooted floating macrophytes, the dreaded water chestnut from Lake Lonely. Recruited by Saratoga Plan, we had just a small group of volunteers making a small dent in this undesirable population. It seems like a daunting effort to try to control these critters even with a more massive frontal attack.
I had wanted to paddle this lake anyway (mostly quite nice) and it was a way to avoid the launch fee. Was maybe hoping to see Big Tuna, NFL coach Bill Parcells, out there getting his hands dirty too since he owns a house up on the bluff overlooking the lake and the Saratoga National Golf Course (which feeds aquatic nutrients right into the shoreline). This is just a stones throw also from the thoroughbred race track. It's all near and dear to the Tuna. His friends call him that, I hope he doesn't mind. Anyway, surprise surprise there was only a limited number of participants from the upper crust lake homeowners associations.
Emily and I pile them up in a big heap near shore where they rot away over time. The pods on the stems below the leaves turn into the seed carrying spikey brown chestnuts after maturity. One wants to harvest prior to that point. They will pierce right thru your running shoe. We did feel somewith our hands;1 you need to pull with gradual sensing pressure.
Sometimes the invasion is local. Here an American Beech tree has invaded my space on Zim Smith going up to Global Foundries.
Not wanting to wait around for bureaucracy to take it's course I felt it would be a good deed to take action and make up for some prior bad acts. It was almost like a self imposed community service sentence.
Ukraine and Russia were once the same entity
more Zebra Mussels
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