Stewardship Tip Aug 24th, 2010- Aerate Your Lawn
The North Fork of the White River, in the Ozark Highlands, has changed considerably since the Norfolk Dam was completed in 1944. The unique karst topography that you’ll find in the region, though, remains unchanged. Karst topography, characterized by extensive layers and outcroppings of soluble bedrock, acts as a sieve. Rainwater and runoff drip through the bedrock into underground springs and streams. Since there are no buffers, such as soil or plants, any pollutants in the water enter the stream directly.
To help protect the North Fork, the Missouri Department of Conservation is attempting to establish more riparian buffers within the drainage. Riparian buffers are small strips of land planted with vegetation. They are designed to intercept pollutants. Strategically placed buffers can effectively mitigate the movement of sediment, nutrients, and pesticides. When combined with sound upstream conservation practices, riparian buffers can achieve a measure of environmental sustainability.
A sound conservation practice at home is to aerate your lawn. As lawns age, soil compaction often results. Compaction reduces the pore space within the soil that would normally hold air. This results in poor nutrient uptake and reduced water infiltration. Poor water infiltration results in excessive runoff.
Aeration opens up your lawn and allows oxygen, nutrients, and water to get to the roots. It creates a healthier lawn with a deeper root system. Aeration will help to reduce the amount of water that runs off your lawn, it will also help to reduce the amount of pollutants that are carried from your lawn in runoff.
The best time to aerate your lawn is when your grass is actively growing. For cool season grasses such as bluegrass, fescue, and ryegrass, fall or spring is the ideal time to aerate . For warm season grasses such as buffalograss, zoysia, and bermudagrass, June, July, or August are ideal.
A core aerator, the type that removes plugs and deposits them on your lawn, will do the best job relieving compaction. Other types of aerators, such as spike aerators, will actually compound soil compaction by pressing the soil down.
Why it is important to the fish: As the members of Team Longboat, one of our Fish-a-Thon teams, note “the Ozark Hellbender resides in the North Fork of the White River. This giant salamander, unique to the Ozarks, is on the endangered species list and is, according to the National Park Service, “extremely vulnerable to habitat disturbance and changes in water quality.” The North Fork of the White, like many cold-water streams in the Ozarks, is fed by large springs which are easily polluted due to the karst topography of the Ozarks that sources groundwater from a large area. If the stream becomes too polluted, not only would the incredible fishery be lost, but the rare hellbender as well.”
Ozark Hellbenders are canaries in a coal mine. They are extremely susceptible to pollution. They need cold, clear, pollution-free water to survive. If pollution kills off the Ozark Hellbenders, will the trout be next?
We all live upstream. We may live upstream from a karst area, we may live upstream from a sand bottom river. No matter where we live, the runoff from our lawns may contain pollutants. We can reduce those pollutants by aerating our lawns.
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