Note in the link for Natural Swimming Ponds they emphasize harvesting each fall the marginal and emergent plants that grew each year to help clearify and improve the water quality. This gets back to what I posted earlier. HAVREST from the pond, be it anything. All types of harvesting stuff from the pond is very beneficial at reducing nutrients because excess nutrients do cause eventual water quality and water clarity issues.
The freshwater lakes of the Ozarks that you describe have lengthy shoreline areas and littoral zones where marginal and submerged plants grow absorbing nutrients that compete with cloudy water causing phytoplankton blooms; plus the Ozark lakes were not overloaded with nutrients and tend to keep water blooms to a minimum. Algae blooms are ALWAYS a sign of over nutrient enrichment. Truth be known Lakes of the Ozarks assuredly have/had low nutrient inputs, lots of good water filtering zooplankton and freshwater mussels that help filter suspended particulates from the water. Overloading a pond or lake with nutrients is the big problem that causes green water ponds or conditions. IMO the more nutrients that a pond receives,,,,,, means more stuff from the pond that needs to be harvested IF good water quality is one of the main concerns or goals.
Keeping nutrients low or minimized in the pond is important to maintaining a clear water pond as also was emphasized in the link for Natural Swimming Ponds. Low nutrients are a big requirement for clear water ponds. Also the right kind/s and numbers of fish that allow good water filtering zooplankton to flourish are also very important for having a clear water pond.
Maintaining clear water is all about nutrient management. Amen
Last edited by Bill Cody; 07/05/25 02:44 PM. Reason: word edits and spelling
