Invasive plants filling up New England's lakes and ponds

Purple loosestrife (whose leaves turn red in the fall) invade a pond.

From Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com

“When nature is overridden, she takes her revenge.’’

-- Marya Mannes (1904-1990), American writer

Kudos to WGBH for its story describing many lakes and ponds in Massachusetts (and by implication all over southern New England) being filled up/ruined by the growth in them of such invasive plants as Eurasian Milfoil, Water Chestnut, Curly-leaved Pondweed and Purple Loosestrife.

Their expansion is being intensified by the overuse of phosphorous-based lawn fertilizers as well as by polluted-water runoff. The environmental damage done by the American obsession with hyper-green lawns is immense; and the rainstorm flow from so many square miles of parking lots ain’t a happy thing either. The warming climate also speeds invasive-plant growth.

These invasive plants have ruined fishing and swimming in many ponds and lakes. The solutions, at least in preventing more lakes and ponds from being ruined, include better monitoring of boats that might be bringing in invasive species, creating more local nonprofit organizations to help monitor, and enforce, protections, including more rigorously limiting fertilizer use and runoff from roads and parking lots near lakes and ponds.

To see the WGBH report, please hit this link.