Trees around pond - 04/20/14 06:09 PM
This is the Google earth location of our club pond.
41°18'46.08" N 82°15'21.60" W
Zoom in and you will see that trees almost surround the entire pond. Most of the big ones are cottonwoods with willows mixed in.
On the east side there is a low spot that is full of water in the spring through June. The only water supply is the field to the east.
We have a large problem with too many nutrients. While we cannot do anything about the farm next door, we can deal with some of it. Those tree's drop a mass of leaved in the pond, which decay over the following summer. That causes too much phosphorus and carbon to be in the water.
We also have a major problem with watermeal. Since no wind can get to the surface it is like glass much of the time. A high nutrient load and still water is the perfect medium to grow watermeal. I have cleared it by filtration and seen if completely cover back up in 10 days.
Some are saying to spray Sonar AS on it, also with some Diquate. I am against that. First we need to do remediation the issue with the tree's, yes I mean cut them down. Then we need to use that cove as a buffer with Pickerel weed and cattails. Pickerel weed has the highest level of nutrient sequestration. Let it grow then cut it and remove the cuttings. That will remove the nutrients.
The banks are steep so that will somewhat limit growth, and I'm not worried about cutting it as needed. I'd rather cut it than fish in a chemical soup. Plus, they charge to apply those chemicals.
Treating the pond with chemicals is simply treating symptoms rather than causes. I want to treat the causes. Sonar AS will kill every visceral plant, even what we might want.
So the choice is to leave the trees and deal with the issues, or cut the dern things down and work on the issues.
41°18'46.08" N 82°15'21.60" W
Zoom in and you will see that trees almost surround the entire pond. Most of the big ones are cottonwoods with willows mixed in.
On the east side there is a low spot that is full of water in the spring through June. The only water supply is the field to the east.
We have a large problem with too many nutrients. While we cannot do anything about the farm next door, we can deal with some of it. Those tree's drop a mass of leaved in the pond, which decay over the following summer. That causes too much phosphorus and carbon to be in the water.
We also have a major problem with watermeal. Since no wind can get to the surface it is like glass much of the time. A high nutrient load and still water is the perfect medium to grow watermeal. I have cleared it by filtration and seen if completely cover back up in 10 days.
Some are saying to spray Sonar AS on it, also with some Diquate. I am against that. First we need to do remediation the issue with the tree's, yes I mean cut them down. Then we need to use that cove as a buffer with Pickerel weed and cattails. Pickerel weed has the highest level of nutrient sequestration. Let it grow then cut it and remove the cuttings. That will remove the nutrients.
The banks are steep so that will somewhat limit growth, and I'm not worried about cutting it as needed. I'd rather cut it than fish in a chemical soup. Plus, they charge to apply those chemicals.
Treating the pond with chemicals is simply treating symptoms rather than causes. I want to treat the causes. Sonar AS will kill every visceral plant, even what we might want.
So the choice is to leave the trees and deal with the issues, or cut the dern things down and work on the issues.