Every year, water chestnut infests popular waterways in Oswego County. As many residents can attest, water chestnut can severely limit boating and fishing. It impacts wetlands, beaches, rivers and streams. Many areas of the Oswego and Oneida rivers, Ox Creek, and Oneida Lake have been affected.
Water chestnut is an invasive aquatic weed.
It crowds out more beneficial native plants because it grows in extremely dense mats that cover the water's surface, preventing sunlight from reaching underwater native plants. The plant is extremely prolific, and one seed can produce 300 new seeds in a single year. The Oswego County Environmental Management Council is distributing a new color brochure to inform people about how water chestnut spreads and what they can do to control its growth. The weeds need to be pulled during the summer, before the nuts have a chance to mature and drop off the plant. The nuts ripen in late August.