NEWTON, Mass. -- Armed with baskets and gloves, a fleet of kayakers set out into the Charles River on Sunday to do battle for the fate of Boston’s waterways.

NewsCenter 5’s Cheryl Fiandaca reported that volunteers from the Charles River Watershed Association scooped hundreds of buckets of water chestnuts out of the Charles River this week, hoping to stop the plants from spreading along the shore. The invasive plant species has been a nuisance in past years, but funding to mechanically harvest the water chestnuts dried up this year, raising fears that the plant could multiply and choke out other species in the area.

PDF: Water Chestnut Fact Sheet

“For other plants and animals, it just cuts out all the sunlight that can get into the water, so nothing can grow where it is,” said Larry Smith, of Charles River Canoe and Kayak. “For people, it can grow up to 10 feet deep, so if you’re boating, you can be circumvented getting to the shore.”

Water chestnuts can form dense, impenetrable mats on the surface of the water that can be a nuisance for swimmers and watercraft. The invasive species also competes for oxygen supplies in the water, crowding out fish and other plants.

Smith said the kayakers don’t have the manpower to remove all of the water chestnut plants from the river, but he hopes that the group can help stop the spread of the species along the Charles.

“It’s a project that we’re not going to be able to complete this year, but we hopefully can at least clear some areas and prevent the return of the chestnut in some areas,” said Smith.

Organizers said the project to clean up the river will continue into the fall and the group will seek additional volunteers to help with the effort.