A new plant harvester is deployed on Chautauqua Lake.

Annual maintenance of Chautauqua Lake takes a lot of time, effort, money, and of course equipment to get the job done. This offseason a great deal of progress has been made on that final piece of the puzzle, thanks to the collaboration of several different groups. In November, the Chautauqua Lake Association took delivery of a new transport vessel from Inland Harvesters. This machine is one of several new capital purchases made by Chautauqua County using American Rescue Plan Act funds in order to benefit the lake’s health in 2025 and in the future.

The transport will be used to offload plant material as part of harvesting operations, and is one of three maintenance fleet upgrades taking place this year. In August, Inland delivered a new harvester (pictured above), which will be used to cut and collect nuisance plant material. The third new machine is a specialized barge that will be used to support Town of Chautauqua Mobitrac operations and cleanup along the lake’s 42 miles of shoreline. This vessel is expected to be delivered before the start of summer. Together the combination of harvesters, transports, barges, shoreline crews, and Mobitracs work to manage plants and debris throughout the recreation season.

Opportunities to fund these large capital equipment purchases can be difficult to come by, but they are vital if mechanical lake maintenance is to continue at its current pace. Some of the machines relied upon to remove plants from the lake are decades old. Look no further than the 1958 forklift CLA used to move equipment in and out of the water since the 1970s. Thanks to contributions from CLA’s endowment and a grant from the County Occupancy Tax Program routed through the Alliance, that forklift was replaced by a new all-weather JCB machine in July of 2024. Plants that are removed also have to be disposed of, which relies on the use of trucks and large shoreline conveyors. Two years ago the County also helped bolster this backend work with the purchase of a new conveyor.

In addition to new machinery, capital investments have also been made to advance scientific understanding of lake impairments, like harmful algal blooms, and what to do about them. Last year the County’s new research vessel, Unity, entered service with The Jefferson Project, helping to deploy and operate their comprehensive lake monitoring network. The boat, also purchased with ARPA funds, is operated by Chautauqua Institution and its research partners. Complementing the in-lake investments are six newly built stream stations, which went online in 2024 as part of The Jefferson Project’s work. These platforms house a suite of sensors to monitor creeks entering the lake, feeding that data into a sophisticated computer model of the ecosystem. Made possible by a grant from the Ralph C. Sheldon Foundation routed through the Alliance, these stations are a huge step towards better understanding the lake’s nutrient budget and its effect on HABs.

Looking back on these investments there is a real breadth and depth to the progress. The developments have only been possible thanks to several community partnerships working towards a common goal. Specific needs were identified, and a combination of public and private funders committed to providing material solutions. Now, these new capabilities yield new opportunities. Looking forward to 2025, there will no doubt be different ideas about how this equipment can best serve the lake. Plates continue to spin in the discussions around management planning, research, and collaboration. But these tough conversations can be aided by having new tools in the toolbox, giving us all the chance to do more for the lake.