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Literally
thousands of ponds have been created in
Southwest Florida
. They come in every shape and form and have been designed for a variety
of purposes including excavation for fill, irrigation, fish and wildlife
habitat, stormwater treatment, and aesthetic appreciation to mention a
few.
The
experience of living on or near a pond or small lake can be quite
enjoyable, as many a poet and story teller has so described. However,
the experience can be tarnished if the pond is not carefully designed
and the residents are not aware of the seasonal cycles that a pond or
lake undergoes and some of the reasons ponds become unattractive.
A
good way to determine how a pond will “behave” is to examine the
watershed associated with the pond in question. A watershed is the area
of land that drains to a specific water body. Watersheds have various
levels of classification. In one sense, much of
North America
may be considered a watershed for the
Gulf of Mexico
, and within this very large watershed many smaller subdivisions
(smaller watersheds) occur. The pond that you may live on in
Southwest Florida
may have a watershed that is artificially created by the configuration
of roads or the design of a residential subdivision and may range from
only a few acres up to hundreds of acres.
Ponds
with watersheds that occur in urban areas with a high percentage of
impervious cover such as rooftops, roads and parking lots are often the
ones that become problematic over time. There are varying perceptions as
to what defines a problem but the most typical ones involve highly
turbid water that is often associated with high concentrations of algae.
This basic problem often creates a cascade of other effects that lead to
fish kills and loss of aesthetic value. Basically, it’s the stormwater
flowing into the pond that ultimately determines the rate the pond ages
resulting from the addition of fertilizers and eroded sediments.
Another
phenomena that creates problems with artificial ponds in
Southwest Florida
is the extreme seasonal differences in the hydrology of ponds. Extreme
seasonal variations in hydrology result from a very disparate rainy
season resulting in the vast majority of our rain occurring during just
a few months of the year (June through September). Having a short but
intense rainy season and a relatively long dry season causes the water
table aquifer to fluctuate extensively with implications for pond level
fluctuations that compound the effect of a long dry season.
Pond
residents can do little to change the effects of the factors already
mentioned but understanding the connections between season, hydrology,
watershed conditions and their ultimate effect on the pond is important
to implementing best management practices or BMP’s. Several BMP’s
that residents can implement to decrease the rate of pond aging include
reducing the application of lawn fertilizers, disposal of lawn clippings
and leaves away from the pond, limited and judicious application of
pesticides on lawns, limiting the abundance and feeding of waterfowl,
and proper disposal of oils and greases etc. Additional information on
pond BMP’s can be obtained from the Southwest Florida Watershed
Council (www.swfwc.org), and the Lee
County Hyacinth Control District (694-5844).
Another
important step that pond residents can take is to form a community
association for pond management. It is important that all residents of a
particular pond work together as watershed stewards to implement an
effective pond management strategy. An outline for developing a pond
management plan can be obtained from the Lee County Hyacinth Control
District.
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