Case Study: Controlling Southern Naiad In School Lake
Private lakes and ponds are difficult to manage, even for the most dedicated landowners. Whether you want to develop a trophy fishery or enhance your pond with a beautiful fountain, there must be a holistic management plan in place. In order to achieve these long-term results, the scientific knowledge and experience of a true professional is needed.
Site Description:
Location: Madison, VA
This property is a prestigious, all-male boarding school that is attended by students from all over the world. The school is known for its impressive recreational amenities, such as a golf course, numerous sports fields, several swimming pools, as well as boating and fishing lakes. The waterbody we treated was 12.2 acres with an average depth of 4 feet.
Scope of Work:
The project included the removal of Najas guadalupensis (Southern naiad), which were impacting recreational use of the waterbody, as well as clogging the irrigation intake. The lake water is also used for irrigation of the turf on the golf course and sports fields. When SOLitude first visited the lake in May of 2016, it was nearly 100% covered with topped-out southern naiad. The lake was completely unusable for fishing or boating, and the irrigation intake was continually getting clogged with invasive vegetation.
Project Description:
We started our management program in late May of 2016 and began with a conservative treatment in a wide area around the irrigation intake. The lake has no aeration, so we monitored the dissolved oxygen carefully prior to additional applications. Once it was confirmed that the DO level remained stable, we performed a follow-up treatment on June 8th. When we returned to check the pond on June 25th, all of the naiad plants were dead or dying, and no additional treatments were required for the remainder of the season. So far in 2017, the vegetation has not returned and no treatments have been required.
Want To See the Results?:
- Niadid Removal
