Paul Szmal: And joining me now is the head of the Invasive Species Committee at the Seneca Lake Pure Waters Association. That would be Linda Samson. Linda, good morning. How are you this morning?
Linda Samson: I'm good. How are you?
Paul Szmal: Doing well. Doing well.
The Invasive Species Committee, who is on that committee besides you and how does it pick its members?
Linda Samson: Well, anyone can sign up to volunteer to be on the committee. We have some long-standing committee members, Jim McGinnis, who I know you've spoken with, Charlie Fasshold, Tony and Larry Martin, you may know. And then there's just some of those people are board members and some of them are volunteers.
Paul Szmal: And what is the Invasive Species Committee working on this summer as we get ready to get into the height of the season, so to speak?
Linda Samson: Well, next week starts the New York State Invasive Species Week. It runs Monday, June 9th through Sunday, June 15th. Seneca Lake Pure Waters will have an educational table event at the Finger Lakes Visitor Center running Thursday, the 12th through Saturday, the 14th.
Paul Szmal: Fantastic. And what is the committee going to be doing over the course of the rest of the summer?
Linda Samson: One of the things that we're involved in is the Macrophyte Survey Program. Macrophyte is simply a fancy name for lakeweed, seaweed. This is where you toss a rake tethered with a line out into the water, preferably off a dock, and you pull out the aquatic plants living there, sort them, identify them, and report them through a data collection app on your phone.
The results from this go to the Finger Lake Institute, Partners for Regional Invasive Species Management, that's FLI-PRISM, who we partner with. And they compile those results to find out what's growing down at the bottom of the lake.
Paul Szmal: And I take it by compiling that information and figuring out the data, then they can figure out how to combat some of the invasive species that may be prevalent.
Linda Samson: Yes, they can. As you can imagine, underwater species are hard to combat.
Paul Szmal: We're talking with Linda Sampson here. She's head of the Invasive Species Committee at the Seneca Lake Pure Waters Association. What kind of invasive species should people be on the lookout for as the summer months approach?
Linda Samson: One of the major aquatic invasive species that we are always on the lookout for in Seneca Lake is hydrilla. It's a really aggressive plant. It looks similar to one of our native, called Elodea. It's unfortunately present in Cayuga Lake. And Cayuga being in such close proximity to Seneca, it could easily get transported on a boat and take up residence in our lake. So we're trying to make sure that doesn't happen, because like I said before, once that gets established underwater, it's really hard to combat and can just use a lot of financial and resources to try to eradicate or just keep it at bay.
Paul Szmal: So what are some of the best ways to prevent transporting it? I imagine making sure that when you take your boat out of the water and go from one body of water to another, you want to make sure there's no aquatic life attached to the boat where you might be transferring some of these.
Linda Samson: Yes, and during July, the second weekend of July, 12th and 13th, we have a Great Lakes Commission-funded boat launch blitz. We set up tables at a few boat launches around the lake, and we engage and educate boaters on the importance of just that, clean, drain, dry your boat, and dispose of any unwanted bait material in the proper receptacle to prevent the spread of both aquatic invasive species, water organisms, and non-native bait fish.
Paul Szmal: How can people find out more about the activities like the boat launch blitz and some of the other opportunities that Seneca Lake Pier Waters Association has to educate people?
Linda Samson: Well, they can visit one of our tabling events, like I mentioned, at the Finger Lakes Visitor Center, or they could stop by a boat launch when we do our boat launch blitz. They can also go to our website, senecalake.org. That's a brand new website. Can find out a lot about the organization there. We are always in need of more volunteers. If you don't have the time to volunteer, we gladly accept cash donations. You can do that on the website, by mail, or at our new office location, 20 East Castle Street, Geneva, right next to Lake Drum Brewing. The volunteerism and donations help us keep advancing our cause to protect, preserve, and promote Seneca Lake.
Paul Szmal: Fantastic. Thank you so much, Linda. We really appreciate the information this morning, as always.
Linda Samson: Thank you. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
