This email is in regard to the pond in the Willows development.  We are currently managing the pond on a monthly basis in a limited fashion.  The water level was lowered a few years ago and that made the shoreline and upper ends even shallower, which can and did promote unwanted vegetation growth.  Our ability to access the pond has been limited because of the lowered water.  We can no longer launch a boat from the area near the spillway (with the fish barrier), because we cannot get a boat to float off of the trailer.  This area is the only feasible one from which to launch a boat big enough to hold a sprayer.  We also cannot access the pond banks to spray because we do not have permission to walk in everyone’s yards.   

 

Currently, we are applying pond dye to the pond each month (if needed), to reduce the sunlight penetration into the water, which will slow and limit the growth of unwanted vegetation in the water.  It does not kill the vegetation on its own.  The application of dye along with the grass carp in the pond were the controls that we are able to use at this time.  Further treatment of the pond will require us to be able to launch a boat into the pond.  We would be glad to explore any other option that you can think of to help us to get a boat launched.  I can think of possibly excavating out the old launch site to make it suitable at the new water level, or stocking additional grass carp into the pond and allowing them to clean it up naturally.  Or we can treat the pond from the shoreline, which will limit the scope of the treatment because of the limited range of handheld equipment.  If we did this, we will need permission to walk through everyone’s yards.