aquatic features

By J. Wesley Allen When development companies design golf courses and landscaped communities with lakes and stormwater ponds, they envision them as beautiful aquatic resources to attract visitors, connect with nature, and enhance the surrounding property. Without proper management, however, these waterbodies can quickly become eye-sores that produce harmful algae and bad odors, lead to damaged and eroded shorelines, and result in displeased members. Most aquatic management professionals will tell you that when a property manager or golf course superintendent calls about an issue at their waterbody, it’s often past the point of a quick fix. This is regularly the case when we arrive onsite to look at an erosion issue on a lake or pond embankment. Rather than finding a few problematic patches of rock or soil, we discover steep, unstable banks, deep washouts and extensive bottom muck caused by years of sedimentation. Erosion is a natural process caused by wind, rainfall, poor design, cultural impacts like mowing and recreation, or simply an aging aquatic ecosystem. These erosion issues are all exacerbated by human disturbance. Unfortunately, erosion can also negatively affect your lake, stormwater pond, canal or coastline by causing loss of habitat and property value, nutrient loading, reduced storage volume and waterbody depth, and excess runoff. When topsoil is displaced, stormwater pipes and structures can be exposed and damaged. Overtime, erosion can lead to the formation of trenches and gullies that pose a serious danger to the public. Erosion Control Solutions There are many ways to correct erosion ...