Habitat Assessment of Northern New York Waterways for Invasive Water Chestnut

Water Chestnut is an invasive aquatic plant originally from parts of Europe and Asia. In the mid 1800’s it was brought to Boston and since then has spread across the East Coast. Water Chestnut can overcrowd waterways making it impossible to boat or fish, not only that but the seeds are spiky causing extreme pain if stepped on. The goal of my project was to determine which waterbodies in Northern New York were most suitable for Water Chestnut Growth. Flow Rate, Water Depth, Sediment Depth, % Light, as well as presence or absence of Water Chestnut, Milfoil, and Floating rooted Vegetation were collected at 10 unique locations with a total of 66 sites and 264 replicates. The Data was then put into a model called Random Forest to determine which sites had the highest risk based off the sites that had Water Chestnut. Using GIS, we were then able to map the levels of risk across the sampled waterbodies to determine where Water Chestnut might grow best.