A Rant On Lawns, Lakes, And The Beauty We've Lost

[coryn h. fishowl]

Well since cabin fever has already led me to learn knife making and set up a forge and even try ice fishing....let me go further off the deep end here before I finally have a chance to go fishing.  Hang with me here, it gets better. LETS RANT ABOUT LAWNS AND HOW THEY RUIN FISHING! LAwns are a $40 billion industry. They use 75 million pounds of pesticides annually and devour more than 10 times the amount of insecticides and fertilizer than farmland. And since 10,000 gallons on water are used per 1,000 square feet of lawn, they account for  30-60% of urban fresh water usage....the result: fishing is ruined. Those chemicals wash into the pond and kill off all the amphibians/frogs very quickly (there goes some of a bass' favorite snacks) and cause massive algae growth. Now a couple of things can happen here. The algae could outgrow the plants, build up, then die off, depriving the lake of oxygen as it decays, killing off a crap ton of fish. We may step in instead and dump more chemicals into the lake to kill the algae....and really ensure that all those pesky, mildly necessary amphibians are dead too....as well as crustaceans/mollusks who are vulnerable to components in algaecides like copper. (More fish food dead...YAY!) Hold onto your pants folks, because this is where things get really fun. Fertilizers cause an accelerated buildup of pond scum, actually aging the pond at an incredible rate.  Normally a pond transitions slowly from Rocky and cool to fairly mucky with plant life, then to chocolate milk, (think Louisiana waters) into marshland. With fertilizers being drained into them, they age faster than that nephhew you haven't seen in three years. (Seriously, last time I saw him he wanted a Nerf gun for Christmas, now he demands an iPhone or Samsung! To which I say "I'm not gonna buy you an iPhone, cause you ask for it, cause you need one...you don't...)

) 

This process makes the habitat unsuitable for the fauna far too quickly....killing them. (I think you've noticed a theme here by now) Of course there is also the weekly crop of rotting, ammonia creating, oxygen depleting grass clippings.  Yet somehow, none of this ranks as the saddest of the facts. Imagine the beauty our forefathers must have seen when they first came here. Sunset painted lakes where mink bounded, dancing on fallen trees to the the music of whipporwhills and bullfrogs and the splashes of pike as turtles floated lazily at the surface of mirrorlike water, each one like a pebble, forming a step-stone path to paradise. A place where dragonflies caught mosquitos on the wing, doing their acrobatics as much to catch prey and perform for suitors as to avoid the multitudinous flocks of birds that gave a sweeter, soprano melody to the bass of leopard frogs. Where there is cut grass less than 2 inches, there are no minks, no garter snakes, no mice, few frogs, sparse crawfish, rare grasshoppers, no crickets, only the occasionally water strider...oh to name the loss of insect life alone would take days, but to name every food bass can utilize that would be lost...would be a tragic endeavor.  

A lawn is not an ecosystem. It is non-native, European cool species plants, not designed for our climate. Cutting it just makes it grow thicker, so that no other plants can get through. So that no diversity can add natural nourishment to the soil, like the humble clover plants, dutifully adding nitrogen to the soil, that for doing so, are rewarded only with poison. Cutting it prevents it from seeding itself and providing food (seed) Watering it in the heat of summer when it goes dormant....only to cut it, leaves bare ground with no cover for mice, snakes, grasshoppers, etc. You're all fisherman, so what happens to animals without cover and food? A lawn is the antithesis of an ecosystem, but the frustrating part is when it is put next to a pond, it masquerades as one. Children can grow up and learn to think that it is. Call my mindset an anachronistic luxury, but I'd rather bushwack to the pond without poison, the one I can call an ecosystem...a piece of forgotten wild. At least, I will when I take that nephew for the first time. He deserves to walk that step-stone path to paradise through the fallen trees and hear the call of the blackbird and whipporwhill, before it is replaced by pavement walkways, cut grass, and the sound of garter snake-mulching lawnmowers. *sigh*

[0119]

Yup.  I havent seen a frog in a decade.  Thanks to 'Round up'.  Dont even get me started on golf courses. My town had nearly 20.  It is impossible to fish anything but a topwater for a 10 mile diameter surrounding my town.  Nothing but angel hair algae.  Not a soul cares, least of all a game and fish dept. run by a consume and develop at all cost governor.

[Fishes in trees]

I'm sorry lawns make you feel bad.  My lawn isn't anywhere near a lake.  I keep around 5 or so acres around my house mowed.  I think it looks cool, most of the time.  I like mowing the lawn.  I have a 48" deck John Deere riding mower.  It has a beverage holder. For 2 and a half hours in season, all I have to think about is what is directly in front of the riding mower.  It is incredibly cathartic, for me.  My lawn also serves as an all-terrrain bocce court, which is fun.  I don't put a bunch of chemicals and stuff on my yard, dandelions and whatnot don't bother me all that much.  Any thistles I find, I poison them right quick, stepping on a thistle bare foot isn't fun.

 

I think mowing the yard a decent distance all around the house  is a good idea. It serves to keep snakes and other critters a decent distance from the house.  I own 120 acres, critters can play on that acreage all they want, just not in the area immediately around my house.

 

I am sad that the lawns in your neighborhood are making the ponds in your neighborhood grow old fast - that blows.

 

Anyway, that's my counter-rant.

[Lund Explorer]

The eutrophication of our waters is caused by a whole lot more than a few lawns being fertilized next to the lakeshore.  You can add septic systems that don't work to that list.  As mentioned before, golf courses add to the problem.  Then we can include combined sewer/runoff systems that get overwhelmed when there is too much rain.  Farms are another source.

 

It all boils down to the fact that the biggest problem is the hardest one to cure.  Mankind!

 

Didn't we already have this discussion back on Earth Day?

[nascar2428]

Roundup, what an environmental disaster.

[bigbill]

I have plenty of mice, moles, toads, snakes still the ones my seven cats miss. But there are plenty still. I use nothing on my lawn of weeds, it's green but that's it. I let it grow high too.

I leave piles of brush for the rabbits too. I plant $75 worth of corn seed for the deer they get there (%) of it's the bear eats my fruit off the trees.

Yes fertilizer makes the stuff grow in our lakes too.

[porkleaker]

Don't use it personally and there are so many frogs here, actually caught one on a weedless frog, crazy cannibals. 

[tipptruck1]

I have never cared if my lawn was green all summer. I refuse to water it, and put any thing on it. Not because I am a tree huger. Because I have better things to spend my time and money on. My grandmother on the other hand. Has put in a in ground sprinkler system. Pays lawn people to put some stuff on her yard all spring, summer and fall.

[Smokinal]

Yup Yup, seen it myself. When I was younger, my Grandparents lived in Cotuit Mass and we would fish some ponds down there. I would run a seine net with my Dad when we first got there and catch chubs for bait. When we first started going there, one pass with the net would give us far more than we would need and the white perch/bass fishing was absolutely phenomenal.  Sometimes during the day we would see trucks pull up to a house with (literally) "ChemLawn" on the sides of the trucks and spray the yards. Now these yards were beautiful and ran right down to the water's edge.

Well, after a bunch of years, we would go back down there and couldn't buy a chub outta that place, none, not a one. The fishing was horrible and the algae blooms were disgusting. Sometimes we would find dead bass with algae stuffed in their gills.

I guarantee you that a councilman lived in one of those waterfront houses...and was not a fisherman.

[Smallmouth Hunter]

Thank you for making this. I strongly agree.

 

To add to this issue of ponds losing there wildlife and therefore lack of fish, every single pond seems to be locked down these days. I can't go fishing anywhere within 20 miles of where I live because gated neighborhoods take them over. I miss the old days when I could walk down the street to my favorite pond that no one fishes and catch em. I've tried to reach out and ask neighborhoods if I could have access to the pond that they have taken over, and 95% of the time I get no response. I feel bad for all the kids these days who can't go fishing without breaking a law. Or else they are fortunate and have a boat or live on the water. 

 

Is fishing a dying sport/hobbie?

[flyfisher]

So how many of these lakes that are being "destroyed" are naturally occurring lakes? 

[Pz3]

This post makes me extremely saddened. Normally Im not a tree hugging hippie type but lets be honest. A lot of us fishing types see what is really going on.

Lawns, agriculture, and chemicals have slowly made their ways into our favorote places. It has hurt fishing and more so is making the everglades, bay of florida, and many coastal areas lose coral, wildlife, and beauty to them.

The private communities surrounding lakes with lack of public fishing areas is also heart wrenching. I went looking at Lake Conway and couldnt even find a decent place. Let alone a public boat ramp.

[midgastumpjumper]

Completely agree. I have a small yard and keep it cut but I keep the chemicals to a minimum and never water it. There is a pond that I can hit a 9 iron to that I can't fish because it belongs to the neighborhood next to mine. Every time I fish there some old lady threatens to call the police. They say it's a liability issue and are afraid if I get hurt I'll sue them

[coryn h. fishowl]

 

So how many of these lakes that are being "destroyed" are naturally occurring lakes? 

 

How many naturally occuring lakes/wetlands have been destroyed by pollution or drained to build subdivisions...which dig drainage ponds with lawns all around them.

[flyfisher]

  

How many naturally occuring lakes/wetlands have been destroyed by pollution or drained to build subdivisions...which dig drainage ponds with lawns all around them.

So I guess that means you don't know either?

[Derriick]

Completely agree. I have a small yard and keep it cut but I keep the chemicals to a minimum and never water it. There is a pond that I can hit a 9 iron to that I can't fish because it belongs to the neighborhood next to mine. Every time I fish there some old lady threatens to call the police. They say it's a liability issue and are afraid if I get hurt I'll sue them

Tell them you will sign a waiver.

On topic: I completely agree that many ponds are harmed from chemicals and pesticides. You have me wondering how is affects my local lake (Pickwick). It is 43,000 acres so im sure its size helps mask the chemicals. And also the water is constantly being pulled downstream but is has to have some effects on it. I have noticed while fishing that many of the properties have a lawn service spraying their yard and many of the yards are sharply sloped towards the water. Im sure it runs off into the water when it rains.

[coryn h. fishowl]

So I guess that means you don't know either?

More than two less than a million haha? I tried to count once, but then I decided to go back to fishing

[CDobber]

My city banned the use of Phosphorus in all fertilizers used in the city limits, unless it was a newly established lawn.  We have a beautiful chain of lakes in the metro area and is specifically designed to help combat algae issues in said lakes.

 

http://host.madison.com/news/local/environment/ban-on-phosphorus-in-lawn-fertilizer-to-start-april/article_1baf81e0-3837-11df-9290-001cc4c03286.html

 

Notice that it states in the article (from 2010) that it applies to all factors (golf courses, residential, etc).  Its a step in the right direction, one that other communities could adopt.

[Frog Turds]

i can tell you that many lakes in my area, these are naturally occurring lakes that are exorcist pea soup puke green in warm months do to farm and home/development run off of fertilizers and manure...smells like a cows @ss with some dead fish funk mixed in for good measure...some lakes get algae so bad its like green syrup on top, creamy...i can't say that the fishing has suffered as i still pound them in the goo but doesn't necessarily make it as pleasant to fish on hot summer days...punchin blue green algae topped slop mats is kinda gnarly  

[coryn h. fishowl]

I've been here before my friend, and I'm here for u in these hard times. You know, just to really help you, if you would like give me the location of this pond plus estimated average bass and ideal lure selection, then I may be able to offer to u a theraputic fishing partner. Trust me, I promise nobody else is listening. Haha.

i can tell you that many lakes in my area, these are naturally occurring lakes that are exorcist pea soup puke green in warm months do to farm and home/development run off of fertilizers and manure...smells like a cows @ss with some dead fish funk mixed in for good measure...some lakes get algae so bad its like green syrup on top, creamy...i can't say that the fishing has suffered as i still pound them in the goo but doesn't necessarily make it as pleasant to fish on hot summer days...punchin blue green algae topped slop mats is kinda gnarly 

Ive

[roadwarrior]

Hmm...

 

In my neck of the woods we have lush green, weedless yards and bountiful wildlife.

I REALLY don't see the issue here. Maybe part of the difference is an unlimited water

supply. We average 5' of rain a year, the Mississippi River and and aquifer with more pure

water than flows through the river.

[ww2farmer]

Lot of ignorance being spouted in this thread. Considering some of the participants, it's to be expected I guess.

[Smokinal]

Lot of ignorance being spouted in this thread. Considering some of the participants, it's to be expected I guess.

Are you saying that you feel pesticides and chemical fertilizers are not harmful to fisheries?

[ww2farmer]

Are you saying that you feel pesticides and chemical fertilizers are not harmful to fisheries?

No, I am not saying that. But as someone who hs been applying and using pesticides and and commercial fertilizers for 20+ years, they get far too much blame cast there way. Misuse of products and poor management are to blame.... And the #1 misusers of this stuff are NOT farmers.

[aceman387]

I maintain and acre and a half and used to spray almost weekly to try and eradicate creeping charlie and clover. One of the best things that happened to me was that my wife took up bee keeping for a hobby a few years ago,ever since i have gone organic and let the weeds run amuck and do there own thing. The bees love the blossoms and now i have a lot more free time to fish instead of spraying and maintaining.