Seneca Bluffs Restoration Day!!!

Seneca Bluffs Park, one of the city's most amazing natural areas, received an extreme makeover this week when over 120 volunteers descended on the park for a restoration work day.

Seneca Bluffs is a 15-acre peninsula nestled right on the Buffalo River. It's a key hotspot for wildlife, from migrating birds to basking turtles to wandering deer. The park is also heavily used by the local community for hiking, fishing, dog-walking, bird-watching and just relaxing.

Volunteers leveled huge swaths of stubborn, invasive Mugwort and Japanese Knotweed that was taking over the park. We then planted fast-growing native species of shrubs and trees with high wildlife value, including maples, serviceberry, birch, buttonbush, redbud, dogwood, butternut, walnut, bayberry, sycamore, cherry, oak, sumac, elderberry and viburnum.

A big thanks goes out to Riverkeeper's partners in this project! HSBC Bank provided over 100 hard-working volunteers as well as trees and shrubs for the effort, and Erie County Department of Environment and Planning and US Fish & Wildlife Service came throughwith vibrant group leaders, equipment and gritty volunteers. Ecology & Environment chipped in with inspiration and ecological expertise in the form of Paul Fuhrmann, one of the original site designers. Erie County Parks brought us a huge load of mulch on short notice.

All in all it was a great day!!! We're looking forward to the next tree planting at Seneca at the end of October. Join us!

Waterchestnut Madness

Undaunted by a late morning downpour, Riverkeeper volunteers joined forces with US Fish & Wildlife Service, Army Corps of Engineers and NYS Parks to stage a search and destroy mission on Tonawanda Creek. Massive flotillas of aggressively invasive, aquatic waterchestnut plants are colonizing the calm channel around Ellicott Island. The crew sought to eradicate the plants before they go to seed. Despite a full morning's labor, half of the channel yet remains to be cleared.


Riverwatch Captain Tom shows off a canoeload of waterchestnut pulled from Tonawanda Creek. The plant must be carefully removed by reaching underwater and pulling the roots out of the muck to avoid breaking off just the floating portion.


Plant material was weighed in order to track and document the group's efforts.

Paul takes a breather while overlooking a great big bin o' waterchestnut.

The plants were barged to shore by a variety of paddle craft and motor boats.

Riverwatch Captain Mike masterminded the operation.

We'll need more help in two weeks to completely clear the channel!! Volunteers on shore and on the water (with paddle craft or small power boats) are welcomed. Stay tuned for a date and time, or contact the Riverkeeeper office for more info.

Waterchestnut in Tonawanda Creek

Just wanted to alert everyone to a "new" aquatic invasive plant in this area. Waterchestnut (Trapa natans) has been quite a problem in parts of the northeast (especially Lake Champlain and the Erie Canal near Syracuse). On June 26th, we were conducting a fish survey when one of our technicians, Denise Clay, spotted what she thought was waterchestnut. We went back to take a look and sure enough, there were about 3 or 4 single plants located at the north tip of Ellicott Creek Island. (This is a closeup of a few "rosettes" of waterchestnut taken from the creek).:

This was quite a surprise since the closest known population (in the Canal System) prior to that was in central NY, near Montezuma. The major problem with this plant is it's ability to choke off a waterway, making canoeing, kayaking, fishing, and other recreational activities virtually impossible. Eric Snyder and I then went out a few days later in one of our canoes and found out that the plant is solidly established behind Ellicott Creek Island. Here's Eric with a handful of the plant with the backwater area in the background:

We found it scattered throughout the entire backwater area behind the island. Some colonies are close to 30 feet in diameter. We're hoping to schedule a "pulling day" in the very near future to try and remove the visible plants and get rid of some of the seed bank (seeds can lay dormant for years so it's good to get plants out of there for that reason alone). Meanwhile, if anyone happens to find this plant locally, please let me know. We're planning to survey a few more places along the creek this week to see if its found anywhere else.