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An Anti-oxident Christmas Present to the Lake
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Written by Peter Goodwin
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Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Many people who enjoy Lake Wentworth could give a gift to the lake that is also good to eat. Vegetative buffers are important to the health of our lake and one plant that qualifies as a native species is the blueberry. You can plant blueberries along your lake shore, help prevent runoff into the lake and harvest a delightful treat in the process.
Vegetative buffers are important for the health of our lake and you can help. When you are thinking about what to give this season as a gift, why not visit the web site of a company that sells blueberry plants, order a few and then plant them along your shoreline next spring. The Comprehensive Shoreline Protection Act strives to keep nutrients out of New Hampshire lakes and your blueberry plants can help to do that. It may take a few years for the plants to start producing fruit, but then they will produce healthy berries for years.
Vegetative buffers are areas that will trap run-off from "storm events". Many rainy days deliver rain to us slowly and do not cause water to run directly into the lake on all shorelines. However, sometimes the amount of rain that falls in a short period of time causes erosion of soils and also takes pollutants from hard surfaces areas into the lake. These pollutants include oil that has dripped from cars, excess fertilizer placed on lawns and gardens even well back from the lake shore and just soil that contains nutrient that is detrimental to the lake. A vegetative buffer slows run-off and the plants absorb the nutrients.
The vegetative buffers shown in the next two pictures are good examples of how plants can be used along the shoreline to prevent nutrients from entering the lake. Any storm event with large water flow will have the water filter through the plants at the shoreline and slow down the run-off. Much of the water will be absorbed into the ground and the plants will then use the nutrients to grow rather than having the algae grow. Phosphorous is the chemical that we need to prevent from getting into the lakes. The more phosphorous in the lake, the more algae that will grow. The buffers that you see in these two picture could be blueberries or other native vegetation.
The pictures below show what happens when there is no vegetative buffer. When there is evidence of this kind of erosion, it shows the the water run-off is entering the lake too quickly without adequate filtration. The fast flowing water brings any pollutants from the land into the lake including fertilizers from lawns, etc. (Please remember that fertilizers containing phosphate, the bad chemical, are not allowed, by state law, within 25 feet from the lake. If it makes the lawn green, it will make the lake green, too.)
 
These examples of erosion near the shore should be corrected and can be quite easily if vegetative buffers are installed. Are blueberry bushes on your Christmas list?
More information can be found at the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services Web Site.
Also, anyone who would like to write an article on any subject for this website should contact the administrator.
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