Water News Archive

Managing aquatic plants in a pond or lake can be like walking a tight rope, especially in shallow lakes.  When lakes receive excess nutrients, primarily phosphorus in Nebraska, the result can be a dense growth of aquatic plants.  But when too many aquatic plants are removed, water clarity and algae problems may follow.

A value-added market for woody biomass (wood chips) generated during management of Eastern Red Cedar and native trees in riparian forests and rangeland is critical to offset the cost to landowners of managing forested areas for fire prevention, invasive plant species control, improving wildlife habitat and ecological preservation. Utilization of wood chips alone and co-mingled with livestock manure or nitrogen fertilizer is being investigated (since 2015) as a land treatment practice on local landowner crop fields with research focused on evaluating impacts on soil moisture holding capacity, temperature, biology, & other properties that impact crop productivity.

When a swine lagoon is abandoned, the owner has the choice of decommissioning the lagoon or maintaining the integrity of the lagoon. Decommissioning means dewatering the lagoon and land applying the sludge at the bottom. One cannot just fill in the hole. The process of removing the water and the sludge is time consuming and takes resources and planning to complete properly. One aspect of the process does have some cost recovery and that is utilizing the sludge in a beneficial way.

Simple checks you can preform on your center pivots to make sure they are ready for the irrigation season.

This article is Part 1 of a two-part discussion on the value of manure. Part 2 focuses on soil quality benefits provided by manure and appeared in the March 6, 2017 CropWatch.

Nebraska Extension, the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality, and Game and Parks again have partnered to offer a series of pond and lake management introductory workshops.  These workshops are free and open to everyone who makes decisions for and about lakes and ponds or anyone who wants to learn more about protecting them.  If you’ve ever had an algae bloom, fish kill, murky water, or just want to know what’s going on in the lake, this workshop is for you.  All 2017 workshops are focused on sandpit lakes.

The 2017 Spring Stormwater Symposium brought together professionals from both public and private sectors to learn from local, regional and national experts. The symposium will focused on examples of stormwater program funding and management, and took an in-depth look into the life cycle of a successful stormwater management project.

Once good soils are in place, create water zones. Water zones are distinct sections of your property which contain plants with similar water needs. Group ornamentals into H-M-L zones in the landscape. Keep each distinct plant group by themselves – set watering minutes per zone accordingly.

Everyone lives in a watershed. A watershed is the land area that contributes water to a location, usually a stream, pond, lake or river. Everything that we do on the surface of our watershed impacts the water quality of our streams, wetlands, ponds, lakes and rivers. What happens in one locality affects other downstream areas.

Odor emission is of great concern to the general public. An odor management plan is required in the permit application for livestock operations with more than 1,000 animal units. Producers need to understand odor emission from animal housing, manure storage and handling, and land application and available management options.