The following story is an extreme example of the confusion regarding whether cattails should be in ponds. We had a stormwater pond owner who had paid a contractor to install cattails at initial construction; these plants were specified on the design plans. A municipal inspector came back a year later and told him to remove these invasive plants! A year after this, he was told by a different inspector with the town to put them back in, as they were on the plans.. The town has since gone to a third party inspection system, and has a strict rule on cattails: No cattails in ponds! The good news is that these types of situations are less common than 3-4 years ago. In most cases, municipalities are clarifying their stances on retention pond requirements.

 When assessing ponds we take several factors into consideration when developing a cattail management strategy:

1.      What municipality are you located in? Some cities and towns will encourage you to have cattails while others will tell you to remove and control them. The decision to have them in your pond, often is not a decision at all, you always want to comply with local requirements. Not being familiar with local requirements (and documenting all communications with inspectors) will cost you money down the line. City of Durham, Town of Cary, City of Raleigh all have slightly different takes on cattails, and experienced professional can advise on pond management strategies.

2.      What type of stormwater system do you have? Wetlands, bio-retention systems, and retention ponds are different types of stormwater systems.

• Wetlands: If you have a constructed wetland with a variety of attractive plants, leaving cattails uncontrolled can result in eventually having a pond with ONLY cattails. Cattails are aggressive, and can dominate these types of systems. For situations such as these, we often incorporate a maintenance plans that includes regular control of cattails. This allows for more diversity of attractive wetland plants. (See picture below of a constructed wetland with no cattails.
• Bioretention systems: Cattails in a bioretention system often indicates standing water, and poor drainage. Complete removal is often desired in these cases, but you may be facing a bigger problem with your bioretention system.
• Retention ponds:If the pond is deep enough, cattails will not be able to grow, and they may not pose a problem. If the pond is shallow, and cattails start causing blockages at drains, you should strongly consider a control strategy.

3.      Other considerations: Mosquitoes. This hot button issue deserves a full blog post of its own (and will be addressed in the next blog). The People Against Cattails (PAC) often claim that cattails contribute to mosquitoes. There are several studies that claim that cattails are good habitat for mosquitoes, especially floating cattail mats: here is a good read from the NCSU Stormwater Engineering Department: http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/stormwater/PublicationFiles/Mosquitoes2005.pdf

In summary, are cattails unwanted? Well, it depends on several factors including to which side you belong (PAC vs PFC). Be sure to keep us in mind if you want some guidance how you can manage your pond. Let me know if you have any stories or comments regarding cattails. 

Beaver debris piled up around riser structure

Beavers are often referred to as, “Nature’s little engineers,” but if you own or manage a stormwater retention pond, you do not want them taking up residence at your facility.  The first time I saw beaver damage around a riser in a stormwater retention pond I was completely amazed at the amount of material they can move around in order to stop the flow of water.  Left unattended, beavers will pile significant amounts of branches, mud and debris around the riser structure, clogging drains and valves, and causing the pond to maintain above-normal water level.  Over time, this excess hydrostatic pressure can cause other damage including weakening of the dam, which can lead to a hefty repair bill.  Beaver activity can also lead to loss of valuable trees and shrubs in addition to increased risk of flooding.  The earlier you can identify beaver activity and remove the animals, the less likely you are to wind up with a hefty repair bill.  Routine stormwater BMP maintenance is the best way to identify the early signs of beaver activity and implement a removal plan before costly damage occurs.  If you have a beaver activity in your retention, we can help.  We have the proper equipment and experience needed to remove the animals and repair any damage they may have caused.  We can get you set up on a maintenance plan going forward to help you minimize the likelihood of another significant beaver event.  Check out these pictures of a recent beaver removal and repair project. 

These examples below, all offer examples of situations that benefit from a customize management plan for you stormwater pond:

Underground detention pipes: “out of site and out of mind” is good until the municipality determines that  this system needs to be cleaned!

Where’s the riser? An occasional inspection to this retention pond will go a long way to prevent this beaver damage from happening! This sort of problem can result in over topping of dams and flooding upstream.

Wetlands can be attractive features in properties with simple quarterly maintenance programs.

I get this question all the time: “What is it that you do?” My answer has varied over the last several years:

Answer #1: “Ecological Solutions provides compliance services to BMPs.” This has been followed by the pause and the follow up question of “What is a BMP and why do you need BMP compliance?” Great conversation starter, but often a long winded answer.

Answer #2: We work on stormwater systems that are used to control and treat stormwater runoff. Leads to this question “What is stormwater runoff and why do we need to treat it?” Often the word “stormwater” is associated with pipes and utilities. Although these do apply to ponds and wetlands we service, the word stormwater doesn’t properly illustrate what we do.

Answer #3: “I have a small company that services retention ponds.” (Lately this has been my go to answer, as most people tend to know what retention ponds are people but often do not know that companies like us exist, specializing on retention pond services.)

Don’t get me wrong, I love talking about ponds and the work we provide to our clients. My point is that our industry is new (side note: most of the demand for our services has come as a result of new regulations that require that water quality in our waterways is improved). Compare this to other industries such as electricians, plumbers, roofers and the likes. Most people do not need a plumber to expand on what constitutes being a plumber. Retention pond professionals have to explain our profession, and mention things: You need an aquatic applicator’s licenses to spray cattails in ponds. (for the record, do not spray Round-up in your pond, not only is it illegal, it kills fish!)

I do not need to be convinced that you don’t call an electrician to fix a broken water line. I know this, you know this. In the pond world, companies like us are obscure and potential clients do not even know there is an industry specialized in maintaining and repairing ponds. This can be costly for the potential client, as there are many stories and improperly constructed or repaired ponds. Take this example: When utility companies lay stormwater pipes or sewage lines, they often lay them on a bed of gravel. However, if you were to lay a pipe through a dam in a bed of gravel, the water finds the gravel, and the pond leaks. We know this because of the numerous repairs we have made because of ponds that were constructed in this manner. Our industry can use better exposure, as this would save property owners costly issues down the line.

At the end of the day, we are a group of people who love being outside and getting muddy, and enjoy helping to clean water. We get satisfaction knowing that our work contributes to improvements in clean water in streams, rivers, lakes and ultimately the ocean. We wear many hats, sometimes of landscapers, sometimes naturalist, sometimes heavy equipment operators or concrete guys. But companies like ourselves, can use our specialized pond knowledge to help clients save money, and have more attractive ponds on their properties. Maybe one day, I will be able to say: “Ecological Solutions provides retention pond services, and be confident that most everyone knows what exactly it is we do.” (And by the way, if you still don’t know, look over the website, and call me if you’d like to talk ponds! 919.851.0033)

Mick Ribault

I did not understand how challenging it was to take good quality pictures for a website. Although we have an extremely large database of pictures (we document every site visit with pictures that record the condition of the stormwater pond), it can be tough to remember to get before and after pictures from the same spot, with good light, with people in it, properly framed, etc.. So we did the best we could for now, but we look forward to updating our projects through this blog. Thanks for checking out the site, and let us know if you have any comments.

From a non-compliant pond to a attractive weltand