PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. (WCAX) - The New York Department of Environmental Conservation recently joined other organizations to remove a few hundred water chestnut plants from Lake Champlain.

Water chestnut is an invasive species that creates large plant beds on top of the water. Experts say the plant beds prevent native plant growth and also reduce oxygen for fish and plants.

Plattsburgh is the northernmost point in New York where the DEC has found the chestnut, but they discovered the plant in a new location near Wilcox Dock.

“We will need to go back next year and check that same location and continue for multiple years of removal from that location, once it starts growing,” said Erin Vennie-Vollrath, an environmental analyst for the DEC.

DEC officials have been unable to remove the plant i

See Full Page