Managing Water-Lily in Stormwater Pond | Annual Management Case Study
Keeping your lakes, ponds and fisheries ecologically balanced and looking beautiful isn’t a one-time job. It requires consistent care by highly trained lake management professionals. If you wait until a problem reveals itself to take action, chances are you’ll always be playing catch-up, which is why SOLitude believes in proactive management plans to help keep water quality issues from occurring.
Below are case studies highlighting a few of our success stories involving invasive aquatic weed management.
Site Description:
Location: Bel Air, MD
This property is a large planned residential community located in Bel Air, Harford County, MD. The community’s waterbody is a stormwater management pond and had all the associated issues commonly seen in these types of ponds, such as nutrient and sediment pollution. The pond is 0.5 acres with a three-foot average depth and has minor to moderate flow during normal conditions. During periods of heavy precipitation, the flow discharges directly into a waterway that connects to the Bush River that enters the Chesapeake Bay.
Project Description:
SOLitude was hired to perform an initial (one-time treatment) in July of 2014. On July 11, 2014, an environmentally sensitive aquatic product was applied to the pond. The application was conducted by hand-spreader throughout the pond with a focus on the up-outlet portions. The target was selected due to the maturity of the plants at the time of treatment, as well as its quicker release profile. The pond was checked in early August of 2014, and all of the water-lily in the pond was dead or dying. The weather had been dry, so there had been little flow through the pond. Because of these factors, a Fast-test and follow-up treatment was not needed. The ease of application and the effectiveness of the product made this initial treatment a winner for both SOLitude and the client.
In 2015, SOLitude Lake Management did not do any treatments at this particular pond. The community had another stormwater pond that had algae and vegetation issues, so treatment efforts were focused there. SOLitude was in the area for these treatments in June of 2015. At that time, very few water-lilies were present in the stormwater pond.
Project Description:
SOLitude was hired to perform an initial (one-time treatment) in July of 2014. On July 11, 2014, an environmentally sensitive aquatic product was applied to the pond. The application was conducted by hand-spreader throughout the pond with a focus on the up-outlet portions. The target was selected due to the maturity of the plants at the time of treatment, as well as its quicker release profile. The pond was checked in early August of 2014, and all of the water-lily in the pond was dead or dying. The weather had been dry, so there had been little flow through the pond. Because of these factors, a Fast-test and follow-up treatment was not needed. The ease of application and the effectiveness of the product made this initial treatment a winner for both SOLitude and the client.
In 2015, SOLitude Lake Management did not do any treatments at this particular pond. The community had another stormwater pond that had algae and vegetation issues, so treatment efforts were focused there. SOLitude was in the area for these treatments in June of 2015. At that time, very few water-lilies were present in the stormwater pond. The community decided in May of 2016 to contract SOLitude Lake Management to provide Annual Management Services for the stormwater pond.
- Water-lily Control
See It For Yourself . . .
The community decided in May of 2016 to contract SOLitude Lake Management to provide Annual Management Services for the stormwater pond. These services included monitoring, pondweed treatment, shoreline vegetation treatment, algae treatment, and reporting. On May 12, 2016, SOLitude performed the first service visit to the pond under the Annual Management program. An environmentally sensitive aquatic product was applied to control the minor fragrant white water-lily that had returned to the pond and a small amount of curly-leaf pondweed. The application was conducted by hand-spreader throughout the pond with a focus on the up-outlet portions. The pond has been visited twice a month since the application. The water-lily and pondweed were effectively controlled the entire growing season. The client has been extremely happy with the results, noting a significant difference in the appearance and function of the pond.
