Invasive Species Projects

Highlights of recent work completed in the Cataraqui Region:

2024 Water Soldier Control on Red Horse Lake:

The Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters and Cataraqui Conservation partnered to create an invasive species “Hit Squad” to complete invasive species control, mapping, and outreach in the Cataraqui region over the summer of 2024. One of the focal points for the Hit Squad during the 2024 season was the removal of an invasive plant, called water soldier, from a cool, deep-water shield lake called Red Horse Lake. Red Horse Lake is a neighbour to Charleston Lake, located near Lyndhurst, Ontario. The Lake is one of only a handful of waterbodies in Ontario that have been invaded by water soldier. Other populations have been identified in the Trent-Severn waterway, Black River, Bay of Quinte, and Lake Simcoe. Water soldier is a provincially prohibited, high-priority invasive species because of its aggressive colonization of shallow, soft-sediment bays that are important habitat for fish and native aquatic plant species. For more information on water soldier, please visit our invasive species profile.

The Hit Squad began their summer by monitoring lakes near Red Horse to ensure the plant hadn’t spread to new areas, as is common with aquatic invasives. This monitoring, which involved slowly canvassing shorelines and shallow-water areas by boat, was completed in five different Lakes and spanned over 250 kilometers of shoreline. The results were positive, with no new water soldier populations detected outside of Red Horse Lake.

Monitoring conducted within Red Horse Lake turned up a total of eight distinct water soldier populations, all within 500 meters of the original population that was identified in 2020. Beginning in mid-July the Hit Squad began pulling these populations from Red Horse Lake using specially designed rakes and a net to corral the plants and prevent them from floating away. After three weeks of pulling, the crew had successfully removed all eight populations from Red Horse Lake, totalling over 1900 kilograms of plants.

This summer (2025) the Hit Squad will return to Red Horse Lake to conduct another round of monitoring and control to maintain last year’s progress. We are hopeful that with continued effort, water soldier can eventually be eliminated from Red Horse Lake.