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Topic: Landscaping



Date Posted: Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Posted by: Tanya Zanfa (Master Admin)
Source: http://www.roanoke.com/community/laker_weekly/help-available-to-m...


Help available to manage landscaping, maintain water quality


Help available to manage landscaping, maintain water quality

The Smith Mountain Lake Association wants you to know your lawn care practices or lack thereof can greatly impact the water quality of the lake.

This is true whether you have lakefront property or you kick off your shoes miles from the pond. The fact is; If you use too much fertilizer or do not control soil erosion on your property, the excess fertilizer or eroded soil find their way into the lake.

Smith Mountain Lake is one of the most closely monitored lakes in the country, according to Jim Pilversack, who is part of SMLA’s Buffer Landscape Committee. The SMLA teamed up with Ferrum College to do scientific monitoring at the lake 28 years ago.

“We’ve been collecting data on water clarity, algae growth, phosphorous and other kinds of things that exist in lakes,” said Pilversack. “As lakes get older, typically they deteriorate, and this lake has not.”

Water quality is a fragile thing. The Smith Mountain Lake watershed includes Pittsylvania, Franklin, Bedford, Botetourt and Roanoke counties. Anything washed into the creeks and streams that feed the Roanoke and the Blackwater rivers ends up in the lake. So the Buffer Landscape Committee of the SMLA wants to you to start being a better water steward.

“For anyone that lives in the Smith Mountain Lake watershed our mantra has been slow and filter the flow of water across your property,” added Pilversack. “Whether it’s coming from your road, off your roof or it’s just from the rain that beats down on your property, then you’re are doing something to help protect the water quality of the lake,” he said.

So how does good landscaping help water quality? Slowing the flow of water gives it more time to soak into the ground, which benefits plants and trees, as well as the groundwater. It also helps reduce erosion. Captured water in barrels can be used to water gardens.

Spreading the flow is another way to slow running water. This can be done by removing downspouts and gutters and putting gravel around the roof drip line, that is, if your house has proper grading sloped away from the foundation. Pilversack also recommended routing downspout water to a rain garden or other planted and mulch-covered areas.

Remember the rest of the mantra — filter the flow. The more plants on your property, the more roots you have to filter the water. Plantings with deep root systems, such as perennials, scrubs and trees, help prevent runoff. Rain gardens, a rain barrel to catch water from gutters, berms and terracing are other solutions.

Another step is to replace your turf grass. Turf grass has shallow roots and requires more water and fertilizer than most native plants, Pilversack said.

But where and how do you begin?

The Buffer Landscape Committee has you covered. All you need to do is give them a call.

“We have Buffer Landscape Adviser Service Teams, BLAST, with two to four people who will walk around the property with the property owner and brainstorm ideas on how they can spread and slow water on their property,” Pilversack said.

After the visit, the team sends homeowners a report with suggestions so the owners can tackle the project on their own time.

If you want to learn more about becoming a better steward for water quality in the Smith Mountain Lake watershed, register for a free educational program sponsored by the Smith Mountain Lake Association. It will be held at the W.E. Skelton 4-H Center on April 12 from 1 to 4 p.m. Speakers will talk about native plants, turf grass substitutes, rain gardens, wildlife habitat, micro pollutants and water-wise landscaping, as well as tours of the buffer garden area, a rain barrel workshop, bluebird-house building and more.



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