Our Challenge

The committee’s challenge is to convince neighbors with ponds in their back yards, and Neighborhood Chairs with ponds on their common property, to voluntarily instruct their lawn maintenance contractors to create “no mow” zones near the pond banks.  By keeping the heavy lawn mowers away from the pond banks, it will help reduce the migration of soil or sand into the ponds.  The more material that gets pushed into the ponds, the sooner the ponds will need to be dredged in order to maintain enough room for the flood retention capability required for each pond.  In addition, dredging is very disruptive to the ponds and adjacent properties as well as a very costly solution.  The “no mow” zones also filter out fertilizer and restrict grass clippings from entering the ponds which helps to reduce nutrients, which may cause excessive algae growth, from entering the ponds.

This will be a challenging undertaking as we have 40 different lawn contractors servicing properties in UP! This mission will require a special effort on the part of neighbors and Chairs.