RI DEM Seeking Volunteers To Harvest Invasive Lotus Plant Pods from Cranston’s Meshanticut Pond
GoLocalProv News Team
RI DEM Seeking Volunteers To Harvest Invasive Lotus Plant Pods from Cranston’s Meshanticut Pond
“The rapid and aggressive dispersal of this lotus patch is a case study in the impacts of invasive plant species. Its establishment and spread are degrading native habitat and decreasing recreational opportunities. We hope that civic-minded volunteers will join us and help check the spread of this destructive invasive plant,” said Katie DeGoosh-DiMarzio, Environmental Analyst with DEM’s Office of Water Resources.
Community harvesting events will be scheduled in late July or early August, depending on volunteer sign-ups.
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Volunteer opportunities are available for paddlers using their own canoes or kayaks in Meshanticut Pond to cut the lotus seed pods from the stem of the plant and collect them in a bucket or basket.
Non-boating volunteers also are needed to stay ashore and help unload the containers of lotus seed pods for disposal.
DEM will provide a dumpster.
Volunteers should bring handheld garden pruning shears to cut the lotus seed pods from the stem and a container such as a bucket to collect them in their canoe or kayak.
Seed pods must be removed after the plants have flowered but before they drop the seeds in order to slow down plant regrowth.
Lotus plants will reproduce by seed and root system, but removal of the seed pods will reduce the number of new plants and help eliminate opportunities for seeds to move downstream.
Future control efforts may include use of chemical herbicides, but manually harvesting the seed pods this summer will reduce the amounts of herbicides necessary to treat the lotus patch.
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