Riverkeeper organizes Seneca Bluffs Tree Planting!

On Saturday, November 8, 2008, Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper staff members organized 22 volunteers from D’Youville College, the University at Buffalo, and Citigroup to plant trees at South Buffalo’s Seneca Bluffs Park. Trees were donated by Re-Tree Western New York and technical partners included US Fish & Wildlife and Erie County Department of Environment and Planning. This group worked together through the chilly weather and less than ideal soil substrate to plant 22 trees of various varieties and re-mulch trees and shrubs from a previous planting. Some of the day’s highlights included the discovery of a hibernating frog, which was delicately relocated and buried, and the naming of a certain tree ‘Mr. Woods’ by our volunteer girls from D’Youville College. All the participants had a wonderful time helping the Buffalo River habitat and are looking forward to returning to see the fruits of their labor in the more favorable weather of Spring.

What Do We Do with YOUR Data?!?!?!

Good Afternoon Riverwatch Captains,

In case you were wondering just what we do with the data that you collect for us please check out the website!!! I have just completed updating all the e. coli and water quality data, that you supply for us on a monthly basis or more, into brand spanking new charts... So be sure to check out just what has been going on at your site from month to month!!!

http://www.bnriverkeeper.org/programs/riverwatch/Water_Monitoring/water_monitoring.htm

http://bnriverkeeper.org/programs/riverwatch/e.coli.htm

RiverKeeper's newest intern!!!

Good Afternoon Riverwatch captains and volunteers!!!

My name is Jerry Krajna and I am a political science / environmental studies student at Buffalo State College interning for the fall semester and maybe even longer. I have recently completed my training on proper water sample & e. coli collection methods and am looking forward to helping out wherever I may be needed. In addition to my sample collection duties I have also been asked to help the organization out with data entry, from all those reports you supply our office with, at various community outreach events and with new captain trainings. I am looking forward to meeting you all at some of our upcoming events and if there is anything I can do to be of help just ask!!! I can be reached through Robbyn or Tom... and don't worry, there is no cat & mouse games played with this Tom & Jerry team!

2008 Fall Beach Sweep

Hardworking volunteers from across Western New York partnered with the Buffalo Niagara RIVERKEEPER to participate in the annual Fall Beach Sweep on Saturday morning, September 20, 2008 and helped clean up the shoreline along Scajaquada Creek, Ellicott Creek, Buffalo and Niagara Rivers and many other tributaries.

Cleanup crews picked up trash that included clothing, drinking bottles, shopping carts, mattresses, and car parts. An exciting find was a canine skull at Amherst State Park. The ambitious volunteers went an extra step further by painting over graffiti under the elevated portion of the highway and whacking back weeds that are invading the natural habitat along the creek. 600 Participants from local neighborhoods joined students from McKinley High School, South Park High School Green Team, Houghton College, Canisus College, and Buffalo State College in making a difference in their community.

Following the cleanup, hundreds of participants attended the Volunteer Appreciation party at the American Legion Post 1041 on Amherst Street that was sponsored by the Grant Amherst Business Association and Buffalo Niagara RIVERKEEPER.

The event was made possible by sponsorships from the M & T Charitable Foundation, Teva, Mark Kubiniec and the Grant Amherst Business Association, Commander Tom O’Connell and the Niagara Frontier American Legion Post l041, Wegmans, Tops, Wal Mart, and Target.

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.

Riverkeeper Shipwrights Build 2008 Fleet

The second annual Riverwatch Boatbuilding Workshop produced four sturdy vessels, in various stages of completion. Workshop leader and Riverkeeper President Richard Butz worked us mercilessly throughout the weekend at Buffalo State College's Maritime Center on the Outer Harbor. Thanks to all the captains and friends who helped out!

Our merry band of Riverwatch folk are inspired by Richard's craftsmanship on the completed Black Rock Skimmer.

Fran shows off his skill at speedy hull attachment on Mac's Weekend Skiff.

Yuri and Bob put their heads together to position the transom on Yuri's skiff.


Our fearless leader planes Tom's transom.



Nella puts some muscle into sanding the bottom while Steven checks the level on his Black Rock Skimmer.

Tom checks the frame of his Weekend Skiff.

Mac paints the sides of his skiff with epoxy prior to attaching the gunwales.

Steven doesn't skimp on the clamps while attaching the gunwales to his skimmer!

The Newly Launched Pipewatch Program

Riverkeeper is pleased to announce the creation of yet another program to help clean up our waterways!

Have you ever been paddling in, or walking along, a waterway and noticed pipes along the banks that seem to be draining directly into the water? Those outfalls are point sources of pollution and it is imperative that we locate them and find out what is being dumped into our streams.

The Pipewatch Program aims to locate, inspect, and monitor all of the outfalls in the Niagara River Watershed. We are in the first stage of the program where we need to locate all of the outfalls. Once the outfalls have been located we will begin to test the water that is being discharged in order to determine their potential for harming our waterways.

Our dedicated volunteers began paddling our waterways in early June and we have already begun to receive information about the outfalls. As outfalls are discovered and inspected, we will be mapping them so that you can see their locations. This link will take you to our googlemaps page < http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=111647279894937938118.000451841c66d5cfe5511>. Each “balloon” represents one outfall and clicking on the “balloon” will allow you to view a photograph of the outfall.

While our volunteers have been working diligently since the program began, we are still looking to recruit new volunteers. There are thousands of miles of streams in the watershed and the more volunteers we have out there, the faster we will be able to identify the points of potential pollution. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer, please contact Robbyn Drake at rdrake@bnriverkeeper.org or by calling (716)852-7483. New volunteers will need to take a short introductory course to familiarize themselves with the program.

July 9th - Doing it in the rain.

Nearly 30 people showed up at The Bailey Peninsula in the rain continuing our efforts at the most beautiful piece of land in South Buffalo. Students from McKinley and South Park met on the bridge and joined forces. We have not been on site for five weeks and it showed. Japanese knotweed encroached on our "retaken" plot. Also, some ......(bad word).....park patron damaged our bench. We repaired it, and placed the roof/table braces. Hopefully, in two weeks the structure will be how we left it, so we can continue progress on it. I think once it is finished, it will get a little more respect from park patrons. The other negative human behavior occuring is cutting the duck bill (all metal-because the wood ones were burnt) tree support wires.

It is impressive to witness teenagers overcome obvious setbacks and persevere and a joy to see the future has capable environmental stewards. Thank you RiverKeeper for keeping winds in my sail during stormy weather.

We will be meeting every other Wednesday until August 20th, RAIN or shine....feel free to join us....after all...it is public space....and voluntary.

All in all, it was a productive day. Check out the entire slideshow by going to The Green Team blog.

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.