Golf Course Ponds Need To Be More Environmentally Friendly

We are starting to hear from many concerned citizens about their municipal ponds and the issue of how and what to do to keep them healthy and clean. The main reason for this recent interest from the community is their concern over the spread of West Nile virus, mosquitoes lay their larvae in stagnant water so these stagnant ponds become an ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes. The other important reason people are interested in the health of their municipal ponds is simply because stagnating ponds look and smell ugly. Who wants to see their community ponds full of algae and pond scum.

Having said that, what may be worse than an overgrown pond is a clean looking one that is full of toxic chemicals. Ask your public golf courses and private golf clubs what they are doing to keep their ponds healthy and clean looking. Chances are they are spending thousands of dollars a year to tackle the pond algae and stagnation problem. They too, do not want mosquitoes around the golf course. Unfortunately, this is a short term fix with potentially damaging long term effects to the environment.

The pond chemicals being used to make golf course ponds look pretty can have a dramatic affect on the health of the wildlife in your area. The environment can suffer as well for the seepage of these chemicals into near by rivers and lakes can hurt the water ecosystems. On average, a golf course will spend $3,000 to $6,000 dollars per/yr on pond chemicals.

If they would only take this budget for one year and invest it in some pond aeration equipment their problems would be solved. Tell your greens keepers to research pond aeration and windmill aeration solutions. There are some extremely cost effective and environmentally friendly ways to keep these ponds healthy and clean without the use of pond chemicals.

© 2006, Pond Owner Magazine.
www.pondowner.com

Wetlands are Important Ponds Too

Recently, many pond owners that we have been corresponding with have indicated to us that they own in one form or another a type of pond called wetland. Owning wetland also needs to be cared for and many wetland owners share the same concerns and challenges as most pond owners. The main one recently being how do we keep our wetlands healthy and clean so that we can keep mosquitoes and other potential harmful insects from breeding in our water.

Wetlands are defined as land that is saturated by water for periods long enough to support the growth of water based vegetation such as bulrushes, weeds etc…

There are five basic categories of wetlands;

• Bogs
• Fens
• Saltwater and freshwater marshes
• Swamps
• Shallow Water Ponds

In North America, most of the wetlands remain intact but a small percentage 15-20% of them have been converted into fields for agricultural use or housing.

Wetlands offer many benefits to humans and animals such as;

• Providing a vital habitat for many reptiles, fish, amphibians, birds and insects to lay eggs and reproduce.
• Providing scientists with an excellent barometer on the environment’s health.
• Producing forms of food like zooplankton for the many species that live in the wetland.
• Providing shelter for many species of animals either permanently of temporarily for animals like birds who choose to nest in wetland.

Wetlands in North America are among the most valuable productive ecosystems. Supporting all sorts of animal life and providing millions of people with numerous sports and recreational activity opportunities such as fishing, hunting, trapping, photographing, painting, sightseeing etc…

Wetland owners are starting to turn to pond aeration solutions to ensure that their wet land water does not stagnate and become toxic breeding grounds for non-favorable insects such as mosquitoes. Communities are very concerned about the spread of West Nile Virus and rightly so.

Wetlands are usually quite far from electricity so a popular and cost effective solution for providing oxygen to the wetland water is windmill aeration. Placing multiple air diffusers off of one windmill is assisting many concerned pond owners in their attempts to keep their wetland water healthy, clean and circulated to cut down on insect breeding, pond algae, pond scum and odorous smells.

© 2006, Pond Owner Magazine.
www.pondowner.com

Underground Water Can Feed Your Pond

Many people are complaining about the lack of rain in their regions and that these droughts are having two major impacts on their ponds.

• Level of Pond water is lowering affecting pond wildlife.
• Pond Scum and Algae is increasing depleting oxygen in pond and affecting the look and health of pond and everything in it.

If we can’t find water on top of the ground via natural sources like rainfall then we need to start looking under the ground. After all two thirds of the world’s fresh water is found underground. For example in Canada, there is more fresh water underground then on the surface. Another interesting fact is that the Great Lakes, straddling Canada and the United States contain approximately 25% of the world’s fresh water in lakes.

You may be lucky and live at a relatively high water table and if so you may only have to drill down a few feet to reach water. Unfortunately, for most people in Texas drilling down several hundred feet is not uncommon. The point is, that if you drill deep enough the chances of you finding water is extremely good. Groundwater is found in spaces between soil or bedrock and much like a rag or sponge these spaces hold the water. These areas that hold the water are called aquifers and form the source of water for wells and springs. Now many people already know this but there are many others that do not.

The costs of drilling and extracting water from the ground to feed your pond is directly correlated to the level of your water table. If your water table is high then there are some relatively inexpensive solutions on the market for you to pump water from a well to your pond. Depending on your water table level Windmill Water Pumps are becoming extremely popular for this.

There are windmills that can pump water and also aerate your ponds at the same time so you are able to address both the major issues that pond owners are addressing in areas that are having a lack of rain fall.

There are also relatively inexpensive electrical well water pumps and combined with an electrical aeration system forms an excellent solution to keep your pond healthy and clean free of pond scum and algae.

Whatever the case, consider looking under the ground for your pond water source. It can be quite cost effective.

© 2006, Pond Owner Magazine.
www.pondowner.com

Retention Ponds Can Be Beautiful Too

Tens of thousands of ponds are dug each year, some small and others big, some for a purpose and others simply for the ornamental beauty.

Commercial retention ponds, which are built to manage storm water so that municipal sewage systems do not back up and create area floods during a sudden downpour of rain number in the thousands in North America. They are mostly located near large parking lots and commercial buildings like shopping malls and industrial parks.

Retention ponds have started to become an extreme concern for communities for the following reasons;

• Retention Ponds are usually quite large in comparison to a back yard ornamental pond and range in size anywhere from 1/4 of an acre to a few acres.
• The aesthetics and health of these ponds are usually of no importance to the land owners such as shopping malls, Property Management Firms, Big Box stores like Walmart, Home Depot, Costco and others…
• Retention Ponds are ideal breeding grounds for insects such as mosquitoes, increasing the potential risk of West Nile Virus.
• Retention Ponds tend to stagnate, overgrow with pond scum and algae and smell like rotten eggs.

Retention Ponds can instead be beautiful with a little bit of knowledge and understanding of how they can keep this body of water healthy and clean. These pond owners do not realize that with a relatively small investment and a little effort these retention ponds could transform themselves in to healthy and beautiful aquatic gardens. They could still be designed to catch storm water as their function requires but instead of letting these ponds grow into stagnant eyes sores they could they could be pretty additions to the environment. By installing a windmill pond aeration system a retention pond owner could cost effectively maintain the health of their water, with very little investment. Heck they could even put in a pond fountain or waterfall.

The other advantage of the windmills are that they do not cost any money to operate once they have been installed and they last for decades. There is very little maintenance on these type of products but the will make all the difference in the health and cleanliness of your retention pond.

© 2006, Pond Owner Magazine.
www.pondowner.com

The Benefits of Pond Waterfalls and Pond Fountains

Pond owners are starting to understand the importance of circulating their water to ensure their ponds do not go stagnant. Every pond professional that you speak to, even the ones who make their living selling pond chemicals will tell you that you need to aerate your water to ensure it stays healthy and clean.

So now that everyone is starting to learn that they need to aerate their ponds and circulate the water within them – people are scouring the marketplace to determine which type of aeration system is the best for their pond. The two types of aeration and circulation systems that we hear customers talk about all the time are pond waterfalls and fountains.

For aesthetics purposes we would have to agree that nothing looks nicer than a flowing water fall or a gushing skyward pond fountain. The one issue is that to force water up into the sky to make a fountain can cost a lot of money in electricity. The other important point to consider is the effectiveness of these methods in dissolving oxygen into your water, which is the process of aeration. As a functional pond aeration or circulation system these types of methods fall way short of more traditional bottom up aeration methods like electric driven or free air driven windmill aeration and circulation systems.

Studies have shown that by placing devices called air diffusers on the bottom of your pond and having compressed air forced through airlines to these diffusers you can infuse between 8-10 times more oxygen into your pond making these ways much more practical and cost effective.

See this pond aeration demomstration.

There are many electrical aeration systems out on the market and depending on the amount of CFM (cubic feet per/minute – a measurement used in the pond aeration industry to classify the amount of air a device can infuse into a body of water) of air you want forced into your pond will depend on the energy requirements to drive them.

© 2006, Pond Owner Magazine.
www.pondowner.com

Think Twice about Being a Koi Pond Owner

This article started out wanting to inform our readers of what the best ways were of constructing a Koi pond. Pretty soon after reviewing the details, costs, complexities and issues in building and owning a Koi pond the article has switched to informing people of the many considerations that are needed to be reviewed before going down the path of becoming a Koi Pond Owner.

The costs and complexities of building and maintaining a Koi pond should be your first consideration. Koi Ponds are not necessarily that little, they should hold at least 1000 gallons of water or more, the larger and deeper they are the better. There should also be side walls built up around the pond to protect the fish from predators, which we will get to in a moment. A water filtration system will need to be installed along with a drainage system so the pond does not overflow.

So now that you have developed your pond and spent thousands of dollars on fish inventory to stock your pond the next thing you have to worry about is ensuring that the local wildlife don’t come and eat all of your prized investment. As a matter of fact, we just had a pond owner call us today and tell us that he’s never stocking his pond with Koi again. He’s tired of feeding the local area raccoons and herons.

Raccoons are pesky and persistent and if they know that your pond has fish in it they will be helping themselves and destroying your pond at the same time. Herons are a little cleaner about the whole thing but they will definitely deplete you fish inventory. Due to the bright colors of Koi they tend to lend themselves as easy targets for the predators.

Trapping or killing local wildlife is not usually an option and more will come so your next step is to try to scare them away or make them feel uncomfortable about being their. Raccoons are quite intelligent little animals and do not scare easy but some people say that owls, or plastic alligators in the pond may work. Some even trap the raccoons and relocate them. Just one more inconvenience in being a Koi pond owner. I think our family will stick to owning a dog.

© 2006, Pond Owner Magazine.
www.pondowner.com

The Pros and Cons of Pond Dredging

Many pond owners are dredging their pond in order to get it deeper or wider and to get rid of all the pond scum and sediment at the bottom.

Dredging traditionally was used to increase the depth or width of water channels so that boats could pass through or it was used to increase the flow rates of water.

Simply put dredging ponds is the removal of earth or sediments from the bottom of bodies of water. This process can be done using a type of scoop or a suction apparatus. This material, often called a “spoil”, is deposited along the shore, formed into an island, or can be transported elsewhere from the site.

Pros of Pond Dredging

There are pros and cons to pond dredging so as a pond owner be cognizant of both. The times when dredging may be beneficial to the environment may be when you are trying to create an island or contoured shoreline in order to form a nursery habitat for fish, ducks or other wildlife.

By increasing or enlarging your pond to create a larger water surface so that it can support additional wildlife and biological diversity within your pond location. These are potential benefits of the dredging process and even though it may disturb the normal balance and productivity of an aquatic ecosystem perhaps the long term benefits outweigh the short term effects.

Cons To Pond Dredging

Here are some of the possible environmental fallouts from dredging. There is a possibility of disturbing the natural ecological balance of the pond through the direct removal of aquatic life. One example of this may be certain bottom dwelling organisms or plants that are providing food for your fish. Eliminating them from the food chain could have a dramatic effect on your fish production and health.

Sediment released from dredging activities can potentially cover and destroy fish feeding and breeding habitats. You may release contaminants in your water that had accumulated and been buried over time and now are re-entering your water source. Finally, dredging can also release additional amounts of nutrients which can cause pond eutrophication. This can result in the depletion of oxygen and potentially the death of fish and other aquatic organisms.

To eliminate this from happening before dredging you should consider installing a pond aeration system in your pond. This will provide additional levels of oxygen for your fish and other wildlife. It will also assist in releasing additional nutrients from your pond to avoid pond stagnation and the replenishment of the sediment that you are dredging to get rid of.

© 2006, Pond Owner Magazine.
www.pondowner.com

How Pond Eutrophication Works

Pond Eutrophication is commonly known as pond stagnation or perhaps another way it can be referred to is the natural aging process of a pond once a pond becomes nourished through the addition of either natural chemicals or those involving human interaction.

Natural Pond Eutrophication occurs when nutrients from the soil are released into the water caused primarily from rainfall and waves eroding the soil around the pond’s edge.

Human involvement can usually speed up this natural aging process of pond stagnation by releasing nutrients such as phosphorus, into ponds from run off. Other ways are through municipal and industrial sewage and or through increased soil erosion, which is the result of human and machine intervention.

Irrigation has a huge affect on water quality and so does the make up of the original water quality of a pond and all its characteristics such as soil type, geology.

The type of irrigation, crop grown and the different farming methods that may be used such as levels of fertilization, run off methods etc… will be a huge determinant of the ongoing health of a pond and its speed of eutrophication.

Irrigation water is either used by plants or it may evaporate from the soil but whatever the case a part of it is always returned to the source and in many cases this water is of lower quality. Farmer field water that runs off the irrigation fields carries with it enormous amounts of fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides; to the extent that these human added chemicals are used will depend on the level to which your pond will need assistance.

Wherever there is high concentration of nutrients you will find dense weeds and algae growth. Eventually what happens is the plants die and decompose causing dissolved oxygen levels in the water to decrease to unhealthy levels. With the depletion of oxygen less and less species can survive and the changes in the pond occurs. Fish kill becomes a major issue with pond eutrophication and eventually the pond will be filled with sediment and plant material.

The most important solution that can slow the pond eutrophication process down is to aerate your water. Pond aeration gets rid of excess nutrients in your water and provides additional levels of oxygen so that your fish and plants can breath; reducing fish kill and plant decomposition. Pond aeration is saving thousands of ponds a year and one company that is a leader in this field is Koenders Windmills Inc., the leading North American manufacturer of aeration windmills and electrical aeration systems for water aeration.

© 2006, Pond Owner Magazine.
www.pondowner.com