Nature Done Wright

A big thank you to all who helped remove some of that nasty vegetation that has been growing under the duckweed in Lake Appert.

Volunteers Brian Kenney, Tom Nicastri and Bruce Davis (pictured above) were part of the team that pitched in and raked out the mystery weed. (Thanks, guys!) 

Several of us are trying to pull out the floating
islands of Marsh Pennywort as well.

We have a theory that submerged weed is stuff called Eurasian watermilfoil, but Gaby Schmitt is checking with a Rutgers expert to find out for sure. 

More on Eurasian watermilfoil here.

After discovering the submerged vegetation, we have been scrambling to remove the gunk in recent days because of the two recent downpours that pushed the vegetation toward the Spillway.

The Thursday night rains were so strong that the stormwater runoff and all its chemicals (including nutrients) were flowing in the opposite direction over the Spillway into Lake Appert for part of Friday.

When the water started to flow out again, we took advantage of the solid flow of water over the Spillway to bring the vegetation to us.

The team removed huge amounts of the invasive in the past five days and will continue to remove this stuff whenever possible.

Below are some of the piles of vegetation. We are hoping the town can remove them.

(Thanks, crew!)