More environmental doom and gloom today - the oxygen-depleted "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico is bigger than ever. Too much flood runoff, too much fertilizer ... and now 8,800 square miles of dead zone. Unfortunately, corn farming to make ethanol is a very messy practice, leaking even more fertilizer into streams, rivers, and finally the gulf of Mexico.

Closer to home, the Chesapeake Bay also has a dead zone also. link

We live in York County PA. The stream in our backyard flows into a small creek, which flows into a large lake (the public water source) the outlet of which makes it way to the Susquehanna and then to the Chesapeake Bay.

Most of the lawns in our neighborhood are very nicely groomed. A few times a year, a salesman from Chemlawn or a similar company comes by to "help" our lawn. They are very concerned - our lawn is at risk from an attack of grubs which could destroy it in just a few days. The salesman is often confused. Why does the largest lawn in the neighborhood not get the same chemicals that all the small lawns get? Why does this homeowner not conform to the neighborhood standard? I point to our pond - a 3/4 acre stocked fish pond in a suburban backyard. We do not fertilize our lawn to keep runoff from causing and algae bloom in the pond. The salesman responds "Oh, we can fertilize very carefully." They are not surprised to be sent away.

When we bought the house, the lawn was richly green - and so was the pond.

We have now set up a system where we can actually remove some nitrates from the stream water - a gravity fed 4" pipe brings stream water into the pond. Our pond plants are fertilized by the stream water, and excess water is discharged back into the stream. Last summer we were able to keep our pond water levels high despite late summer drought ... but our pond turned green.

We have big oak trees on a south facing slope that overlooks our pond. Currently, the following things do well: poison ivy, Virginia creeper, black cherry trees, wild blackberry, honeysuckle... really we have a jungle. The black cherry trees can't be kept, as they grow to a height that blocks are pond view. I have been planting grass seed (horrors) on areas that I have cleared - as a way to keep the poison ivy at bay.

The whole area is about 100-150 feet long and just about as wide... a huge problem for me to keep under control. I need a longer term solution that will be lower maintenance than black cherry trees and not grow very high. A plant or shrub that humans or birds can eat would be great... but it needs to be pretty aggressive to compete with the weed species we keep removing!

It is hard to tell from the picture, but the oaks are 12" to 36" wide. The pond covers about 3/4 acre. In the foreground is grass, closer to the pond a thicket of many thinkgs including the cherries, brambles, and even Chinese Bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus).