Ponds That Attract Wildlife

The number of ponds in North America is growing by approximately 2 – 4 % per/yr. This comes as no surprise when you speak to pond owners and they tell you about the enjoyment they receive by having this natural wildlife attraction. Ponds act as magnets to all sorts of different wild life… both land and water-based.

Pond owners will speak about their fish and how important it is to keeping them healthy and alive. Others remind us of the sounds that toads and frogs make at night and even if you are in an urban area listening to these relaxing sounds makes you feel like you are in the middle of a forest. Some pond owners tells us about sitting outside in the evenings, having their tea and watching the deer come by for their evening drinks of water. Bird watchers love their ponds; taking pictures and painting the many varieties of birds that are drawn to this water source.

Kids of pond owners are always playing in the ponds collecting fish, frogs, toads, tadpoles, insects, snails and other bugs that most adults curl up their lips and say “get that out of the kitchen”. Read about pond safety for kids.

Ponds need to be kept healthy and clean so that the animals that we enjoy watching remain healthy as well. To do this read some of the articles in pond owner that speak about keeping your pond healthy and clean and try to avoid using pond chemicals. If you wouldn’t put these chemicals in your drinking water then don’t put it in your ponds. Learn about natural ways to maintain your pond such as pond aeration systems.

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

Municipalities are Cleaning Up their Ponds By Following the Private Sector Methods

Local Governments are looking for alternative ways to keep their municipal ponds and water reservoirs healthy and clean. Unfortunately, most do not have the budgets for expensive solutions, so for years they have just gone on, the way they always have – by adding pond chemicals to treat their water as a short term measure to solving long term pond problems.

Many are being taken advantage of by equipment vendors and consultants who believe that they can charge outrageous amounts of money for their products and services just because the customers happen to be local governments.

Its refreshing to hear from many municipalities who are starting to be more entrepreneurial and aggressive in their approach to solving this issue and are experimenting with less expensive, do it yourself, alternative ways to improving pond water quality.

Pond and water aeration is the best place to start in your experimentation process. Government studies have been conducted for over 20 yrs on the benefits of pond aeration and how, by increasing the levels of dissolved oxygen in a pond, you can improve the quality of the water. This natural process is really quite simple: the additional levels of oxygen burn off excess nutrients, pollutants and run off chemicals that are suspended in a pond’s water body – cleaning up the water and improving the health of its ecosystem. This alternative is minimizing and sometimes eliminating the use of expensive toxic pond chemicals.

There are pond aeration systems on the market that range in prices from hundreds of dollars to tens of thousands of dollars. I urge you to look at some of the vendors that have been around servicing the private sector for decades and providing tremendous results. A web site page that you may want to visit is the Koenders Windmills customer feedback section – they have created a series of testimonial videos of private enterprise and customers who have used windmill aeration systems on their ponds for years. Listen to the results these people have received from investments of less than $2000.00

Maintenance and warranties is always an area that product vendors like to justify charging 10 times the fair price for a product. These types of windmill aeration systems have 3 yr warranties included and are virtually maintenance free, except for the 1 hour every few years it takes to do the periodic maintenance on them.

The next experimentation stage once you have implemented your aeration systems is to explore the burgeoning market of natural pond conditioners as opposed to chemicals to help your ponds along. These formulations are made up of various bacteria, enzymes and other metals – when combined with aeration can provide an excellent alternative to chemical use.

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

Pond Safety Should Be First Concern

Pond Owners often express the joy they receive from watching their children and grandchildren swim, fish and play around the pond.

Water has always been a fascination for little children and its important that we keep in mind the associated dangers which ponds can pose. Unfortunately, we are often reminded of avoidable mishaps around water, with reports of youngsters drowning in pools, ponds and lakes.

List below are some safety reminders for pond owners to ensure that we act safely and responsibly.

• Make sure there is adult supervision when the children are playing around your pond.
• Set guidelines and rules for pond play so that children know the boundaries – discourage diving and rough housing in water.
• Have safety equipment at hand – first aid kid, reaching pole and even throwing assist buoy.
• Get trained in water safety and first aid.
• Pond chemicals and pond conditioners should be stored in a safe place out of the reach of children preferably in childproof containers or in sheds that can be locked.
• Do not use float devices or toys to replace adult supervision.
• Have life jackets available at the house for when small children are over and make sure that they wear them at all times if playing outside.
• Encourage your children and grandchildren to take swimming lessons at a young age – this is a life survival skill that has priceless value.
• Its sometimes difficult to limit access to larger ponds but smaller ones can be fenced off in a yard.

Keep these tips in mind as we enter the warm summer months and everyone is playing around the pond.

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

Preventative Measures for Reducing the Spread of West Nile Virus

We had a consultant contact us this week who was discussing the threat of West Nile virus and explaining how people with ponds have a responsibility to keep them clean to reduce the risk of spreading this disease.

These consultants primarily work with local governments and are trying to ensure that municipal ponds are not mosquito breeding grounds.

The two main preventative measures one can take to ensure that mosquitoes do not breed in their ponds are;

• Circulate water using a water pump or fountain.
• Aerate your pond to keep it healthy and clean in order to avoid pond stagnation and algae.

Pond chemicals are also an option however, we were told that there are some strong disadvantages to using them;

• Over use of pond chemicals can pollute your water and can be detrimental to both wildlife and humans.
• Short term fix in treating unhealthy water for it tends to mask the real pond problems that are present.
• Depletes the oxygen in your pond even further which is a critical component to a healthy pond, therefore increasing your dependence on expensive chemicals while at the same time not addressing the main objective – having a healthy clean pond.

Municipalities should be taking a leadership roll in this area of environmental protection. There are many that are but the majority of local governments are still addressing pond problems and the threat of West Nile virus with the use of expensive and potentially toxic chemicals.

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

Protect Your Pond From Pesticides and Hazardous Chemicals

Pond owners who use pesticides, fertilizers and other hazardous chemicals to keep their lawns and gardens looking good should consider this important fact.

These toxins are accumulating in your ground water and running off into your pond. The more you use the worse it is for the environment, wildlife and you.

Consider reducing or eliminating the use of chemicals to control lawn and garden weeds and insects by;

• weeding by hand and pulling off any insect infested vegetation and disposing of it
• frequently hosing down insect eggs and larvae that is attached to plants or other items
• switch up your garden crops from year to year so that you can avoid the use of fertilizers and prevent the depletion of soil rich nutrients
• regularly weed and hoe your garden to keep your plants healthy and insect free
• compost and other environmentally friendly fertilizers should be used
• in the cold winter months avoid using salt as a de-icer on your walk ways – use sand instead
• When disposing of hazardous chemicals avoid pouring them down your drain or dumping them in the lawn (contact your local government offices for local waste and disposal companies)

As pond owners we need to do our part to conserve and protect our most precious natural resource – water and the environment.

We need to educate our family and friends on these environmental issues and also ensure that our views are heard within local public offices. Make sure that your communities are not using hazardous chemicals and fertilizers to keep lawns, gardens and municipal ponds clean. Municipalities literally spend tens of thousands of dollars per year of tax payer money deploying chemicals into our environment all to make things look good.

We need to think of more creative ways to keeping our communities clean and looking good.

A great example of this is pond care and maintenance. Currently, 90 % of municipalities in North America are spending thousands of dollars per/yr on chemicals to keep municipal ponds clean. Those chemicals are being ingested by the ducks and wildlife that live in and around the ponds. This water is also seeping into water supplies, nearby rivers and lakes. Why are these local governments doing this?

Instead of using toxic chemicals to keep municipal ponds looking clean, local governments should be practicing environmentally friendly ways to do the same thing – pond aeration accomplishes 80-90% of what the chemicals do – and even better – it’s a sustainable approach to healthy water – in other words the ponds look good and are also healthy contrary to the pond chemical approach.

There are all sorts of aeration systems on the market – windmill pond aeration systems are extremely cost effective and do cost any money to operate once they are up and running. No ongoing costs – unlike chemicals – its a one time investment.

Its up to us to make a difference and its starts in our back yard and communities!

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

Pond Condition Affects Real Estate Property Values

It was mentioned to us recently from some top real estate professionals that the health and look of a pond could dramatically impact the property value. The property value can be impacted anywhere from 5 to 35% depending on the size of the pond and proximity to the house. Up until now, we had never really considered this point.

One property owner who backs onto a 6-acre lake with 10 other homeowners has expressed grave concern about the health of their pond. “It looks like a sewage lagoon and smells like rotten eggs”, he was quoted as saying. Before speaking with pond owner he was considering selling his property instead of building his family’s dream home on it.

Ponds need to be cared for and for the many property owners that jointly share the responsibilities of keeping a pond healthy and clean wake up to this reality. Remember that an unhealthy pond has a significant impact on the value of your real estate asset.

The good news is that there is a simple, proven and extremely cost effective solution to restoring your pond back to its natural beauty. Put oxygen in it – its called pond or water aeration. One of the most popular methods of pond aeration is using windmill aeration systems, which can restore your pond back to health.

Windmill pond aeration does not require any electricity to operate and depending on the manufacturer can be extremely reliable. When choosing your manufacturer look for ones that have been in business for several years such as Koenders Windmills.

Koenders Windmills Inc. sells approximately 5,000 windmill aeration systems a year and has over 35,000 of them in operation around the world. They come with a 3 yr warranty and are built to last decades. You can’t go wrong with a company like this – there are others in the market place as well, such as Superior Windmill who has established themselves in the market place over the last several years.

If electricity and cost of operation is not of concern to you then there are a number of electrical aeration systems available on the market as well. Make sure to inquire about the monthly cost of operation for some of these systems can be quite costly to run.

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