The Delicate Balance of Walkers Pond
…. Not just our pond, every pond. I recently learned that alga is a weed that is airborne. They release spores that travel in the air spreading algae from pond to pond.

Algae compete with fish for water borne nutrients while other nutrients are borne on algae for fish to ingest. Results, you could create a sterile pond if the appropriate use of use of herbicides and algaecides isn’t applied correctly.

The Filamentous algae growing around the edge of our pond provide shelter for small fish. These minnows eat mosquito larvae then they provide bigger fish with a food source. The food chain. A little alga around the pond is a good thing, but you can’t allow it to grow uncontrolled. That’s why treatment with herbicides and algaecides is necessary.

The Spartina grass that we planted has the ability to contain runoff of nutrients from yard fertilizers. We don’t need fertilizer in the pond. If you must use a weed and feed, please don’t use it by the pond.

The water chemistry is so important to the health and beauty of our pond. If you want to continue seeing those shorebirds we can’t have a sterile pond.

I love this time of year when the Snow Birds return from the their warm, sunny, winter homes. Frank and Dotty have a place in Sun City in Hilton Head, South Carolina, but they call their place on the Assawoman Bay and Walkers Pond, “Paradise”.
If you have walked around the pond in the summer you have seen Dotty on her hands and knees pulling weeds around the pond at Harbour Drive to keep it looking neat. You have seen both Frank and Dotty with their long grabbing sticks pulling trash out of the pond.
If you have noticed fewer bugs covering your screens, thank Dotty and Frank, they clean out and encourage the Purple Martins to live in those condo birdhouses in the park.
These tasks that are freely performed by Frank and Dotty are not cover in the pond maintenance contract the Montego Bay Civic Association has with Envirotech.
Keeping paradise beautiful has been a daily task for the hard working people, Friends of Walkers Pond, LTD. Over the years when you saw the fountains spouting water and lights shinning, that was because of Steve Borkowicz and Bob Lechner. They had worked with Jasper Johnson all those years and when he left they knew exactly how to keep them working. The work they have done cannot be measured in dollars and cents.
Envirotech won’t be here everyday, but we are. Now that we have a planted shoreline notice all the birds that were never here before. There are so many we haven’t been able to identify all of them. Thanks to Phyllis Mossmiller soon there will be more benches so you can watch them. She needs volunteers to help set them in place. You will be able to sit there without being eaten up by bugs because the birds and fish have eaten the larvae that were at the edge of the pond. How’s that for cooperation
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The first image is Dr. Roman Jesien, Science Coordinator for The Maryland Coastal Bays Program. The plant he is carrying is the most robust I have ever seen. They were grown on Assateague by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
The young men, seniors from Mount St. Joseph High School in Baltimore, installed them into our pond’s shoreline to keep it from eroding. We figure close to seven hundred plants were given to us. This work took place over several days, not only did they plant, but they also dug them up where they have been growing. Once dug up they had to be separated.
This was part of their Senior Project, which helps them toward graduation. Too often we read about young people that are not a credit to their community, never a mention of young people like the ones that visited us today. They were a pleasure to have here!
They did have more plants that I wish they could have planted at Walkers Pond; unfortunately, there was too much water in the pond. The plants were taken to Macky’s
This is the second time we have lost plants and volunteers to do the planting. It will be interesting to see how much Envirotech charges Montego Bay Civic Association to replace those plants we lost because the water level was allowed to flood the shoreline. We must have plants to stabilize the shoreline or it will erode.
I want to remind you why the shoreline had to be replaced: the Montego Bay Civic Association had cemented over the original outfall pipe causing the water to go over the asphalt walk putting the foundations of the homes in jeopardy. Today the new shoreline is in jeopardy because the depth of the water is not being regulated properly. The roots from the plants will hold the shoreline in place, but first they must become established in the sand. Too much water will wash them away. Which is more important: an algae free pond or a stabilized shoreline?