"loves the red wing black birds ..." ??
Ahhh! They are one reason we're trying to get rid of the cattails. RWBB's are super aggressive and chase any other birds away from the feeders. They just arrived last week and I bet we have 20+ just swarming the feeders and the other birds just give up and leave.
IME - cattails and other non-floating aquatic plants will only grow where the water is shallow enough and clear enough for sunlight to get to the bottom. Once established though, they almost build their own habitat through built up decaying material and such as well as trapping sediment around the root base. And then the march is on. Last fall when our pond was down a bit, I started removing cattails (well over 6 feet tall) first with a mini excavator then with my tractor loader. The muck and water they're in weigh so much I was tipping the excavator pretty often (not all the way over but close).
The quandary I find myself in is that I need to draw down the pond and let it dry out enough to get in and do some remedial dirt work BUT the time I need it empty is during the height of our need for it to be full (fire season, summer irrigation etc). Just have to gamble one of the summers I guess.
