hitch
02-23-2008, 01:56 AM
Alright, so you say better habitat is the answer? Do you know what that means? Well better habitat is not more hydrilla. Better habitat is getting rid of the crap, including the Hydrilla… getting rid of the muck caused by the crap, chopping, burning, and flooding. But the crap (Hyacinths, water lettuce, non-native species of willow, grasses ferns and vines, and HYDRILLA) will always still grow back until the root cause of this out of control growth are addressed. By root causes I’m writing of the…
NUTRIENTS and in Particular - PHOSPHORUS
Until NUTRIENT LEVELS ARE ADDRESSED AND LOWERED PERMANENTLY THERE WILL NOT BE BETTER HABITAT!!!
NUTRIENTS are THE ROOT CAUSE OF OUR PROBLEMS WITH HABITAT.
Actually its development and Agriculture responsible for the excess nutrients, but you won’t stop that.
The answer to resolving habitat issues long term, means getting rid of the nutrients in the water that cause the crap to grow out of control so prolifically.
Once the nutrient levels come down, which will take decades, restoring natural flows will be next. Natural flow will help rid the bottom of muck. This will take more time even with proactive muck removal efforts.
The thing that everyone needs to understand is that the reason natural vegetation can not recover is not because of spraying, for the most part. The natural bottom conditions of our lakes and streams not long ago were very sandy bottomed in central and south Florida, where most of us hunt. Sandy bottoms were the natural healthy condition in most of our marsh river systems and lakes. Native vegetation grew from these sandy bottoms in the naturally low nutrient conditions. These natural conditions began changing not that long ago – only starting to manifest in the 70s and quickly becoming very bad in the 80s as nutrient runoff from agriculture peaked, and nutrient levels built up to extremely high levels. In fresh water systems, Phosphorous is the main issue, but also extremely high nitrogen levels work with the phosphorus to exacerbate the growth of these non-native plants. When the plants reach a state of growth on a body of water that chokes the system, the system goes to a state called “hypereutrophication” and dissolved oxygen levels drop off in many cases can go to near zero. Aquatic life can not grow in these conditions, both plants and organisms. When the lakes and canals are sprayed, or the mass of these weeds die due to low oxygen, the material left, referred to as biomass settles to the bottom and creates the muck. The muck is highly organic. The nutrients from the agricultural and urban runoff bind to the muck, so the muck stores the nutrients. The muck lies on the bottom and is so concentrated that it works more to kill growth, than to promote it. This makes things worse because the system retains nutrients as more and more muck is being added by the subsequent runoff of more nutrients (especially Phosphates) are added to the system. The muck is like a sponge sucking up the nutrients until the “sponge” becomes saturated. What is not bound in the muck forms a column of nutrients in the water of extreme high levels of nutrients and this grows more invasive floating and emergent material (Hyacinths, water lettuce, non-native species of willow, grasses ferns and vines, and HYDRILLA) then subsequently this material dies and forms more Biomass (more Muck) and more nutrients are stored.
This is the key - Eventually the levels of nutrients get so high in the water that nothing can grow, not even hydrilla, and the entire system dies.
So when a WMD guy tells you he hasn’t sprayed, he may very well likely be telling you the truth. Our rivers and lakes are so polluted with nutrients, in some cases such as the Upper St. John’s and Lake O - nothing grows in the open marsh water.
This also illustrates how bad this problem is.
So if you chart this system of noxious growth, you get a bell curve…
Initially the crap material (Hyacinths, water lettuce, non-native species of willow, grasses ferns and vines, and HYDRILLA) won’t grow without enough phosphorus…
One pound of phosphorus can grow 500 lbs of Hydrilla, or Algae, or Hyacinth…….
Then when the system becomes saturated and goes hypereutrophic, nothing grows and the system dies including the weeds.
So in summary, again, the big issue, the root cause, what I have been preaching is:
FIXING OUR HABITAT MEANS getting rid of THE NUTRIENTS and mostly
THE PHOSPHORUS
The Water Management Districts are doing their best with the money they have, buying old farm land up, restoring it, adding more control structures, controlling discharges off these “managed wetlands” to contain nutrients, and building STAs to treat water and remove nutrients. And you can expect there to be more STAs being built, even north of Lake O they will likely build more STAs, on the order of about 1-1.5 million acre feet more STAs…
It costs about $20,000 US dollars to remove 1 kilo of phosphorus from the water once it’s put in the water. You guys good at converting Kilos into pounds know that’s only 2.2 lbs.
OK, now my next point….
If we could go to a NO-Phosphate Turf rule, this would eliminate about 10,000 tons of Phosphate from being imported each and every year. The total last fiscal year of Phosphate imports including agriculture and decorative horticulture was about 67,000 tons.
Phosphate is 45-50% pure phosphorus so you can do the math. 4500-5000 tons at $20,000 US dollars for every 2.2lbs. Just the cost to remove this once people spread it on their yards should be reason enough!!! My God….
So you see why I am working this problem so passionately.
This is the biggest thing we can do right now to save habitat…the biggest!!
I feel it's our job to help the Water Management Districts with the things that ARE MOST IMPORTANT LONG TERM - getting rid of nutrient sources. The biggest thing we can do is jump all over the task I have been working on - the senseless dumping of phosphorus is our systems for lawn grass. I tell you what...It's been like pulling teeth to get any help.
Now I know who the guys are that have backed me up on this. Talk is cheap, letters and E-mail work, and I appreciate everyone that has helped thus far. You want to help fix habitat, help me with this effort.
Hitch
NUTRIENTS and in Particular - PHOSPHORUS
Until NUTRIENT LEVELS ARE ADDRESSED AND LOWERED PERMANENTLY THERE WILL NOT BE BETTER HABITAT!!!
NUTRIENTS are THE ROOT CAUSE OF OUR PROBLEMS WITH HABITAT.
Actually its development and Agriculture responsible for the excess nutrients, but you won’t stop that.
The answer to resolving habitat issues long term, means getting rid of the nutrients in the water that cause the crap to grow out of control so prolifically.
Once the nutrient levels come down, which will take decades, restoring natural flows will be next. Natural flow will help rid the bottom of muck. This will take more time even with proactive muck removal efforts.
The thing that everyone needs to understand is that the reason natural vegetation can not recover is not because of spraying, for the most part. The natural bottom conditions of our lakes and streams not long ago were very sandy bottomed in central and south Florida, where most of us hunt. Sandy bottoms were the natural healthy condition in most of our marsh river systems and lakes. Native vegetation grew from these sandy bottoms in the naturally low nutrient conditions. These natural conditions began changing not that long ago – only starting to manifest in the 70s and quickly becoming very bad in the 80s as nutrient runoff from agriculture peaked, and nutrient levels built up to extremely high levels. In fresh water systems, Phosphorous is the main issue, but also extremely high nitrogen levels work with the phosphorus to exacerbate the growth of these non-native plants. When the plants reach a state of growth on a body of water that chokes the system, the system goes to a state called “hypereutrophication” and dissolved oxygen levels drop off in many cases can go to near zero. Aquatic life can not grow in these conditions, both plants and organisms. When the lakes and canals are sprayed, or the mass of these weeds die due to low oxygen, the material left, referred to as biomass settles to the bottom and creates the muck. The muck is highly organic. The nutrients from the agricultural and urban runoff bind to the muck, so the muck stores the nutrients. The muck lies on the bottom and is so concentrated that it works more to kill growth, than to promote it. This makes things worse because the system retains nutrients as more and more muck is being added by the subsequent runoff of more nutrients (especially Phosphates) are added to the system. The muck is like a sponge sucking up the nutrients until the “sponge” becomes saturated. What is not bound in the muck forms a column of nutrients in the water of extreme high levels of nutrients and this grows more invasive floating and emergent material (Hyacinths, water lettuce, non-native species of willow, grasses ferns and vines, and HYDRILLA) then subsequently this material dies and forms more Biomass (more Muck) and more nutrients are stored.
This is the key - Eventually the levels of nutrients get so high in the water that nothing can grow, not even hydrilla, and the entire system dies.
So when a WMD guy tells you he hasn’t sprayed, he may very well likely be telling you the truth. Our rivers and lakes are so polluted with nutrients, in some cases such as the Upper St. John’s and Lake O - nothing grows in the open marsh water.
This also illustrates how bad this problem is.
So if you chart this system of noxious growth, you get a bell curve…
Initially the crap material (Hyacinths, water lettuce, non-native species of willow, grasses ferns and vines, and HYDRILLA) won’t grow without enough phosphorus…
One pound of phosphorus can grow 500 lbs of Hydrilla, or Algae, or Hyacinth…….
Then when the system becomes saturated and goes hypereutrophic, nothing grows and the system dies including the weeds.
So in summary, again, the big issue, the root cause, what I have been preaching is:
FIXING OUR HABITAT MEANS getting rid of THE NUTRIENTS and mostly
THE PHOSPHORUS
The Water Management Districts are doing their best with the money they have, buying old farm land up, restoring it, adding more control structures, controlling discharges off these “managed wetlands” to contain nutrients, and building STAs to treat water and remove nutrients. And you can expect there to be more STAs being built, even north of Lake O they will likely build more STAs, on the order of about 1-1.5 million acre feet more STAs…
It costs about $20,000 US dollars to remove 1 kilo of phosphorus from the water once it’s put in the water. You guys good at converting Kilos into pounds know that’s only 2.2 lbs.
OK, now my next point….
If we could go to a NO-Phosphate Turf rule, this would eliminate about 10,000 tons of Phosphate from being imported each and every year. The total last fiscal year of Phosphate imports including agriculture and decorative horticulture was about 67,000 tons.
Phosphate is 45-50% pure phosphorus so you can do the math. 4500-5000 tons at $20,000 US dollars for every 2.2lbs. Just the cost to remove this once people spread it on their yards should be reason enough!!! My God….
So you see why I am working this problem so passionately.
This is the biggest thing we can do right now to save habitat…the biggest!!
I feel it's our job to help the Water Management Districts with the things that ARE MOST IMPORTANT LONG TERM - getting rid of nutrient sources. The biggest thing we can do is jump all over the task I have been working on - the senseless dumping of phosphorus is our systems for lawn grass. I tell you what...It's been like pulling teeth to get any help.
Now I know who the guys are that have backed me up on this. Talk is cheap, letters and E-mail work, and I appreciate everyone that has helped thus far. You want to help fix habitat, help me with this effort.
Hitch