- Think of the landscape around your home. Your lawn requires mowing and fertilizers or weed killers at
certain times. Your trees and shrubs need trimming. The results are obvious when you ignore the landscape,
or manage it poorly. The same is true with natural bodies of water. Mismanaged or ignored ponds and lake
front result in unbalanced fish populations,excessive weed growth and sediment accumulation. Homeowners
have huge impacts on the water quality,habitat value and productivity of lakes and ponds. Through certain
actions they sometimes unknowingly promote the decline of the resource they enjoy the most. The effects of
such things as clearing shoreline vegetation, creating beaches,placing septic tanks too close to the lake,
fertilizer and pesticide runoff from lawns,and inflow of storm water have caused many urban and populated
lakes to show signs of degradation. Yet many homeowners do little,if nothing to maintain their waterway until
the problems are too great to be ignored.
- Services are available for aquatic restoration,Choosing the correct one is easy when you understand a little
about what each application does,There are mechanical applications, biological applications, chemical
applications and passive applications.
- Mechanical applications refers to the industrial sized dredge machines used to dredge sediment off the
bottoms of large rivers and lakes,or the monstrous weed harvesters that cut the aquatic vegetation like a
lawn mower. These machines are not available for personal home use,and are costly to transport and run.
They are also too large for shallow water along shoreline and docks. Furthermore,once the weed harvester
cuts the vegetation,the debris is left within the water to pile-up on the shoreline,tangle in boat propellers,
irritate swimmers,and decay. Decay is the largest enemy to a body of water because it creates organic beds
of silt for all other aquatic vegetation to reseed in. It also releases phosphates and nitrates into the water
which speed the growth of other aquatic vegetation such as algae bloom,and it kills fish. Also when the weed
is cut it is shaken and chopped,leaving it to replant or reseed itself in a short matter of time,further
aggravating the original problem.
- Grass Carp and sometimes Weevils,are referred to as biological applications. They can work,however grass
carp will seldom control aquatic vegetation the first year they are stocked. They will readily consume a plant
like hydrilla as it is one of their most preferred plants,but stocking rates to control a weed like hydrilla are
usually in the range of 7 to 15 fish per surface acre. If you spend $70 for one grass carp, how are you going
to feel about buying 14 more? And there are many plants these fish will not eat, such as white water lily,or
will prefer a different plant over the one you want them to eradicate.
- Chemical applications can be as effective as using weed killer on a dandelion, or as disastrous. Ever use too
much weed and feed on you lawn and you l know what I mean. It is also highly dangerous to your self.
Chemical applications should only be administered to a body of water by a professional. The concerns of
chemical applications are many, for example one danger with any chemical control method is the chance of
an oxygen depletion after the treatment caused by the decomposition of the dead plant material. Another
problem in using aquatic chemicals is determining area and/or volume of the pond or area to be treated. And
remember, anytime you kill a plant in your water and do not remove it completely, it will decay and cause
organic sediment.
- Another type of chemical application is the use of non-toxic dyes or colorants, not to beautify the water but
to block sunlight and prevent it from reaching the bottom. This deters ground growing vegetation to grow.
However,dyes do nothing to enhance the natural food chain and may suppress the natural food chain of the
waterway.
- Passive applications are the final type of control method one can use to fight aquatic weed growth. These are
the approaches homeowners take on a weekly basis,such as raking at the weeds underwater. Some people
use large rubber mats to lie on the floor of their waterway. These mats block sunlight to the ground much like
the dyes,but they need to be cleaned of sediment accumulation regularly or the weeds will grow on top of the
mat. These techniques are helpful and should be considered for maintenance,however they are time
consuming and labor intensive and may contain petroleum.
Now, for the logical solution
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