The Charles River Watershed Association and local citizens have obtained funding to conduct large-scale mechanical harvesting to remove roughly 50 acres of water chestnut and other invasive weeds.
The Charles River Lakes District in Massachusetts is a popular destination for canoeists, kayakers and rowers, but the pollution from stormwater runoff resulted in an increase in nutrients resulting in the growth of water chestnut, Eurasian watermilfoil and fanwort which interfered with those activities.
The weed harvesters have will harvest for a few weeks in August before the water chestnuts drop their seeds and will start up again in the spring of 2014.