Your floating fountain helps to maintain the balance of your pond or lake with constant aeration while providing a pleasing view throughout summer months. As we head into winter, now is the best time to consider scheduling critical maintenance and “TLC” for your fountain, such as an oil and seals maintenance service.

This important fountain maintenance task will ensure that your seals are working as designed, preventing any water from leaking into the unit, and that that your pond fountain is running with clean oil. The oil and seals service includes performing an internal inspection of the power unit (motor and related parts), making any necessary adjustments, replacing any worn parts, and changing the oil, rotary shaft seal, and all related parts. Changing the oil in your fountain works much like changing the oil in your car: the cleaner the oil, the smoother it runs.

Written by Industry Expert Paul Dorsett, Fisheries Biologist

I could hear his excitement when Mike called requesting a consultation on plans to build ponds and lakes on the ranch he intended to purchase. Upon arrival at the ranch to evaluate the potential for several 1- to 20-acre impoundments, and after consulting a topographic map, I quickly realized Mike’s excitement was about to be severely diminished. The entire area he wanted to develop into scenic lakes and trophy bass fisheries was fed by over 1,600 acres of watershed. This watershed may be suitable for a 150-acre lake in this area but for the relatively small impoundments Mike envisioned, this watershed would have resulted in unmanageable fisheries with expensive and difficult dams to build and maintain. In short, his lakes would have flushed like a Texas tube chute every time a sizable rainfall event occurred.

From fishing to hiking to skating, outdoor recreation doesn’t stop throughout the winter. Many of these activities take place on or around frozen lakes and ponds. Like any other time of year, it’s important to ensure proper safety steps are taken near the water. SOLitude Lake Management, an environmental firm that specializes in sustainable lake, pond, wetland and fisheries management strategies, encourages extra caution around frozen waterbodies this winter season:

 
SOLitude Lake Management wants you to be prepared for the Autumn season and all of the wonderful cool weather it brings. With this in mind, we recommend you consider the following tips as you enjoy the colorful fall months on your lake or pond:

• Fall is a good time to think about repairing and maintaining the areas around your lake or pond. Be sure to trim the buffer zone and make certain that it is free of woody vegetation. Repair any eroded areas around your waterbody before they become major issues. Erosion repair can easily be done in the fall months when you can plant and seed the areas to allow for soil stabilization.

• Schedule a bathymetric study as well as a structural inspection of your lake or pond. This will allow for proper budgeting for 

SOLitude Lake Management wants to be certain that your lake or pond is prepared for 2017. With this in mind, we recommend that you consider the following during the winter months:

• Review your lake and pond budget and replacement reserve funds to ensure that funds are available for bathymetry to determine if and when you will have a need for hydro-raking or dredging.
• Evaluate your waterbody to determine if you need to add aeration to meet your management goals and objectives for 2017, and don’t forget to schedule annual maintenance and service for your existing fountains and aeration systems this winter.

SOLitude Lake Management wants you to be prepared for the Autumn season and all of the wonderful cool weather it brings. With this in mind, we recommend you consider the following tips as you enjoy the colorful fall months on your lake or pond:

• Fall is a good time to think about repairing and maintaining the areas around your lake or pond. Be sure to trim the buffer zone and make certain that it is free of woody vegetation. Repair any eroded areas around your waterbody before they become major issues. Erosion repair can easily be done in the fall months when you can plant and seed the areas to allow for soil stabilization.

• Schedule a bathymetric study as well as a structural inspection of your pond. This will allow for proper budgeting for future dredging and repair of any physical problems with your pond and its related structures.

SOLitude Lake Management wants your lake or pond to be prepared for warm weather. With this in mind, we recommend that you consider the following during the spring months:

• Have your lake or pond’s water quality professionally tested. Find out early in the season if there is an imbalance or increased nutrient load in the water.

• Be patient if you notice spring algae or green water. Once your waterbody has established a balance, either naturally or with assistance from the SOLitude Lake Management Annual Management Program, algae will clear up.

• Put a natural and effective integrated mosquito management plan into place for your community with surveillance, monitoring, minnow or bluegill stocking and other control methods.

Written by Industry Expert, Gavin Ferris, Ecologist 
 
My cousins, brother, and I watched the old Farmall tractor putter out onto the ice. When it stopped at the center of the farm pond, my uncle climbed down from the seat, walked around, and jumped up and down in a few places. He then struck the ice several times with a golf club, returned to the tractor, and drove back off of the ice. Having supported the weight of the farm tractor and my uncle’s frame, and having withstood the savage blows he rained upon it, the ice was declared to be safe and we were allowed to start skating. I never did ask how he planned to get the tractor out of the pond if the ice had given way.

Venturing onto a frozen body of water is a dangerous enterprise, and should only be attempted when the ice is known to be thick, strong and solid. Even then, it is imperative to consider liability issues, emergency plans and preparation. Right now, we are seeing temperatures that are colder than usual. As a result, many ponds that usually freeze only lightly, if at all, now have a thick layer of ice over their surfaces. This may seem like an ideal time for neighborhood skating parties and impromptu outdoor hockey games, but I urge you to take extreme caution and think carefully before you let people out onto the ice.

SOLitude Lake Management wants to be certain that your lake or pond is prepared for 2016. With this in mind, we recommend that you consider the following during the winter months:

• Review your lake/pond budget and Replacement Reserve funds to ensure that funds are available for bathymetry to determine if and when you will have a need for hydro-raking or dredging.

• Evaluate your waterbody to determine if you need to add aeration to meet your management goals and objectives for 2016, and don’t forget to schedule annual maintenance and service for your existing fountains and aeration systems this winter.

• Think ahead to spring and pesky mosquitoes. Keep them at bay by setting up an Integrated Pest Management plan to include surveillance, source reduction, larviciding, minnow stocking, monitoring and more.

Written by Industry Expert, Jason Luce, Lake Management Scientist, Fisheries & Wildlife Scientist and Certified Lake Manager

Aerating lakes and ponds as a management tool began as early as the 1950s and was initially used during the winter months to reduce the probability of a fish kill. Later in the 1960s, the idea of aerating your lake to control eutrophication effects and to improve water quality began to take hold. The concept of aeration is a fairly simple one. Aeration introduces compressed air through a diffuser at depth, and causes water to be welled up by a rising plume of air bubbles. Surface aeration is another method that typically uses an impeller, forcing air and water from the surface of your pond or lake upwards, landing on the surface waters, increasing the diffusion of oxygen into your pond or lake (fountain aeration). Aeration has become a widely used and accepted lake management tool to increase dissolved oxygen levels within a waterbody, but as an effective tool it must be utilized correctly during the summer AND winter months.

So why aerate during the winter? Well let’s take a closer look at what is really going on in your pond during these colder months and use our findings to understand the cause of a dreaded fish kill.