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

[coryn h. fishowl]

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.

Yeah, it does greatly depend on the size of the lake. Lake Geneva has its fair share of manicure chemically juiced lawns sloped perfectly to dump a toxic load in the water, but because of sheer size, u don't notice the aging. The best example is to take a broad look at the decline of amphibian populations as an example. As water become more tainted, they die off. Even more importantly, the simple act of letting grass grow long and wild plants sprout at the lakes edge offers more insect life, more amphibian life, more food and shelter to various creatures like garter snakes and mice that are all incorporated into the food chain. Cutting it all down limits a lake's carrying capacity.

[preach4bass]

I live out in the sticks surrounded by farmers, swamps, and ponds. We don't seem to be having any of the problems you're talking about. Our farmers use lots of chemicals to help grow the food we eat and make an honest living for their families. Yet, those chemicals don't seem to be bothering our ponds. In fact, a buddy and I caught a nice mess of bass out of a local farm pond this afternoon, and they fried up right nice. I don't think the farmers are to blame. They live off the land, so they care about protecting it more than most folks, and have the knowledge to do so. Maybe the pretty lawn folks are messing up your neighborhood ponds with their overuse or uneducated use of chemicals, but our farmer are doing a pretty good job of growing your food while protecting our local ecosystem.

[Smokinal]

 And the #1 misusers of this stuff are NOT farmers.

I agree...

 

I live out in the sticks surrounded by farmers, swamps, and ponds. We don't seem to be having any of the problems you're talking about. Our farmers use lots of chemicals to help grow the food we eat and make an honest living for their families. Yet, those chemicals don't seem to be bothering our ponds. In fact, a buddy and I caught a nice mess of bass out of a local farm pond this afternoon, and they fried up right nice. I don't think the farmers are to blame. They live off the land, so they care about protecting it more than most folks, and have the knowledge to do so. Maybe the pretty lawn folks are messing up your neighborhood ponds with their overuse or uneducated use of chemicals, but our farmer are doing a pretty good job of growing your food while protecting our local ecosystem.

...and agree

[Fishing Rhino]

It's interesting that this thread excoriates golf courses as evil killers of fishing waters.

 

I cannot tell you how many threads there have been on this forum about the great fishing at golf course ponds. 

 

Another interesting observation as a former golfer, I cannot recall seeing a "dead" pond on a golf course.  I have seen several that have large numbers of frogs and huge, plentiful crawfish. How many courses in southern waters are home to alligators?  They cannot survive in barren waters.

 

On one local course, Lakeville Country Club, the largemouth bass that live in a pond adjacent to the course use culverts to navigate their way to the shallow waters on golf course property where they spawn.

 

While my observations may not be scientific, they do bear evidence that nature can, and does in some instances, thrive despite the chemicals used on golf courses.

[preach4bass]

Rhino, I've observed the same thing about our local golf course pond and ditches. It's so full of life that we go frog gigging there and always end up with a nice mess.

[Fishing Rhino]

Rhino, I've observed the same thing about our local golf course pond and ditches. It's so full of life that we go frog gigging there and always end up with a nice mess.

 

When I was younger, we'd take a flashlight to a nearby golf course to gather night crawlers.  You can dig all around our home, except for the gardens and the lawn, and not find an earthworm.  But our compost heaps, gardens, and lawn are rife with them.

[coryn h. fishowl]

I live out in the sticks surrounded by farmers, swamps, and ponds. We don't seem to be having any of the problems you're talking about. Our farmers use lots of chemicals to help grow the food we eat and make an honest living for their families. Yet, those chemicals don't seem to be bothering our ponds. In fact, a buddy and I caught a nice mess of bass out of a local farm pond this afternoon, and they fried up right nice. I don't think the farmers are to blame. They live off the land, so they care about protecting it more than most folks, and have the knowledge to do so. Maybe the pretty lawn folks are messing up your neighborhood ponds with their overuse or uneducated use of chemicals, but our farmer are doing a pretty good job of growing your food while protecting our local ecosystem.

Farmers aren't the problem, they use 10x less chemicals than lawns; plus given the shallow rotts of cut grass, those chemicals run off into water. Farmland doesn't cause the environmental degredation of the urban lawn.

[SirSnookalot]

It's interesting that this thread excoriates golf courses as evil killers of fishing waters.

 

I cannot tell you how many threads there have been on this forum about the great fishing at golf course ponds. 

 

Another interesting observation as a former golfer, I cannot recall seeing a "dead" pond on a golf course.  I have seen several that have large numbers of frogs and huge, plentiful crawfish. How many courses in southern waters are home to alligators?  They cannot survive in barren waters.

 

On one local course, Lakeville Country Club, the largemouth bass that live in a pond adjacent to the course use culverts to navigate their way to the shallow waters on golf course property where they spawn.

 

While my observations may not be scientific, they do bear evidence that nature can, and does in some instances, thrive despite the chemicals used on golf courses.

Michigan has a lot of golf courses and their environment appears to be very healthy.  New golf courses are regulated as to how much of the "natural areas" must be left.  My area of Florida is a one time farming community, now it's urban sprawl and growing every day.  We have a lot of residential communities and lots of golf courses, we also have lots of gators, all kinds of wild life and the fishing ain't too shabby here.  What we do have that has disappointed me are public areas such as canals fenced off limiting fishing access.

 

On the other side of the equation the population growth creates jobs.  Building is booming and I hear tradesmen have more work than they can handle.

[Lund Explorer]

Until such time as someone can provide a credible source that says that the "urban lawn" is the main problem with the degradation of our waters, I will stick by my original statement that there are many sources.

 

A person simply needs to look at the regulations of the Clean Water Act to see what human activities can cause this problem, and it includes everything I mentioned.  The act includes regulations on Residential, Commercial, Industrial, and Agricultural sources.   Sorry if anyone thinks that their ox is getting gored, but the facts are the facts. 

[Nice_Bass]

Eutrophication and resulting hypoxia is very real and very easily documented- and non-point source pollution is the main culprit of this.  Only look at the Mississippi delta area leads to more than enough data to prove it.  The major sources are in fact agriculture as well as urban settings in creating issues on large bodies of water and whole watersheds.  Smaller lakes may experience it through higher amounts of ecoli and similar results of nitrogen and phosphorus loading.  

While agriculture is largely to blame for the "source" of non-point source it is not solely to blame.  Loss of riparian buffer zones has a large impact as well as urban runoff.  

 

Proper watershed mgmt. policy can help solve many of the issues however it is the Ag. industry that is also helping quite a bit.  GIS technology etc., leads to proper application of chemicals and fertilizers which helps reduce waste, increase yields, and reduce a good portion of non point source pollution.