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JUNE MEETING.
We have rescheduled our June meeting to Thursday, June 13, at 7 PM. Location
to be announced. Please put the new date in your calendar (the meeting had been scheduled for June 11). Please also note that the meeting will begin at
7 PM, rather than at 7:30 PM.
WATER CHESTNUT HARVESTING
We are going forward with the water chestnut harvesting at the Res. for the next two weekends. The dates are Saturday, May 18 and Saturday, May 25.
Rain dates are Sunday May 19 and Sunday May 26. We will begin at 9 AM, but if you cannot get there until later, please come later. We will be uprooting
the water chestnuts from canoes and kayaks - if you have a canoe or kayak,
please bring it, along with a life jacket. If you do not have a canoe or kayak, please come anyway. Some of us will be doing a shoreline clean-up,
others will be collecting the plants uprooted by the folks in boats. There should be extra life jackets and extra boats so that you can go out in the
boat even if you do not bring one. If you bring a boat, please park in the parking lot on Lowell St. If you have waders and would like to do that,
please bring them.
Roger Frymire, water chestnut harvester extraordinaire, will be training and assisting us. Here are some suggestions from Roger Frymire for the harvest:
* Rakes are not needed, and should be discouraged since they needlessly stir up sediment. (But bring a rake if you will be working on shore.)
* Small bins and buckets are useful to hold harvested weed and transport it to the shore. I use a 14-gallon recycling bin on my kayak which will hold
at least 1000 small plants.
* Otherwise a strong tarp could be used to pile the harvest upon and make it easier to move at the end of the day.
* Gloves are not useful in the pulling, since they get wet with each reach into the water. (But bring gloves if you want to do the shoreline cleanup.)
* Towels are useful for drying off during regular breaks.
* A small shore crew could assist in swapping full buckets for empties and carrying weeds from the shore to the disposal pile.
* Canoes and Kayaks are much more useful than waders, because bending way over can be a pain.
* Some shallow areas may only be reachable by waders.
* From canoes, harvesters may need to bring cushions so they can sit in the bottom to more easily reach the water. One paddler and two or more
harvesters per canoe should be optimal.
* Speed is not necessary, I often position myself upwind of a patch and grab as many as I can while drifting over it.
* I will bring along a few set of tools which might help people in waders reach the weeds without repeated bending over.
A FEW REQUESTS AND REMINDERS
For Rich Bento: Rich, can you have DPW haul away the trash and dead plants after each event?
The ConCom will provide beverages
Elizabeth Karpati will bring trash bags
David White will bring ropes
The ConCom will identify the areas that we should avoid due to nesting and migrating birds
Leslie Mayer has requested that the gates to the Res parking lot be opened at 8:30 AM
Thanks to everyone!
Gene Benson
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