News from the Lake Hopatcong Foundation. Part of the message---Read Full Update--I clicked on copied, pasted at bottom. I'm just a little nervous about weed removal. That's not to say I'm right to be nervous about it, but that I don't know. I do know that since Lake Musconetcong was treated chemically with weed killer, water clarity so great that you could read a dime on the bottom five feet down, became a turbid mess like diarrhea. Fishing suffered. The best I've been able to estimate, and other people say same, the flourishing population of pickerel is all but gone from the lake.
To the best of my knowledge, chemical treatment of Lake Hopatcong vegetation is not in any of the plans. I interviewed the state and Knee Deep Club about the most recent fisheries survey on the lake, and my understanding is that weed removal here involves a harvesting device. This is not to say, however, that no concerns for fish populations with regard to weed harvesting exist. But the best I could gather is that the concerns are only marginal. If I rightly recall, some fingerling bass might get scooped in the process, but then maybe I'm only imagining this, rather than remembering. Maybe the issue is habitat, but not about serious loss.
I've got notes from those interviews. But God help me find them. The article I wrote for Lake Hopatcong News in final form doesn't go into the issue, I believe, but maybe I will check on this.
Overabundance of aquatic vegetation you can blame on lawn fertilizers, for a big factor. Other factors involve impervious surfaces and what's on them when rain washes over the concreate and asphalt. That's of lesser concern than fertilizer. I wish I could remember the percentage of impervious surface in relation to the total area of the state. It's a very high ratio. More than roadways, parking lots in paradise to paraphrase Joni Mitchel, are rooftops and patios, sidewalks and cartops. Another factor yet in some waterway situations, doubtfully Hopatcong, I believe is phosphate from washing machines...if I imagine correctly that sewage treatment does not alter the PH factor that affects water and plant life in turn. Last, but far from least, the biggest factor we may confront in our concern for waterways is climate change. PH balance, and nutrient balance with regard to fertilizers, depend a great deal on water temperature to possibly get things way out of whack.
I never forget. Late March 2012, standing at Lake Carnegie's aqueduct, and viewing water lilies up. Blooming, no, not yet. But March temperatures, days on end, in the 70's and 80's....what may we become?
Storm water management is unambiguously good to me.
$500,000.00 annual dollars is a whole lot of money. None of it should be loosely wasted, in my opinion.
I wonder what the "more" is.
To the best of my knowledge, chemical treatment of Lake Hopatcong vegetation is not in any of the plans. I interviewed the state and Knee Deep Club about the most recent fisheries survey on the lake, and my understanding is that weed removal here involves a harvesting device. This is not to say, however, that no concerns for fish populations with regard to weed harvesting exist. But the best I could gather is that the concerns are only marginal. If I rightly recall, some fingerling bass might get scooped in the process, but then maybe I'm only imagining this, rather than remembering. Maybe the issue is habitat, but not about serious loss.
I've got notes from those interviews. But God help me find them. The article I wrote for Lake Hopatcong News in final form doesn't go into the issue, I believe, but maybe I will check on this.
Overabundance of aquatic vegetation you can blame on lawn fertilizers, for a big factor. Other factors involve impervious surfaces and what's on them when rain washes over the concreate and asphalt. That's of lesser concern than fertilizer. I wish I could remember the percentage of impervious surface in relation to the total area of the state. It's a very high ratio. More than roadways, parking lots in paradise to paraphrase Joni Mitchel, are rooftops and patios, sidewalks and cartops. Another factor yet in some waterway situations, doubtfully Hopatcong, I believe is phosphate from washing machines...if I imagine correctly that sewage treatment does not alter the PH factor that affects water and plant life in turn. Last, but far from least, the biggest factor we may confront in our concern for waterways is climate change. PH balance, and nutrient balance with regard to fertilizers, depend a great deal on water temperature to possibly get things way out of whack.
I never forget. Late March 2012, standing at Lake Carnegie's aqueduct, and viewing water lilies up. Blooming, no, not yet. But March temperatures, days on end, in the 70's and 80's....what may we become?
Storm water management is unambiguously good to me.
$500,000.00 annual dollars is a whole lot of money. None of it should be loosely wasted, in my opinion.
I wonder what the "more" is.
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