It has been an interesting year so far and this month is no exception! February is now officially the hottest ever recorded and March is vying for the title of the hottest month ever recorded. Last year blew 2014's record as the hottest year ever recorded by a huuuge margin (as Bernie Sanders would say). This season, North America saw an extremely warm winter and now an early Spring. One thing that is happening on cue though is the March wind. Blowing fast and furious as I write this. Making lots of noise.
This past year tried to make up for the previous drought years. Hard to do in just one year but sure tried hard. Floods in most of the state. Filled up most lakes and ponds but I don’t know if it has helped our ground water situation much at all, at least from all data and reports I am reading from various scientific sources. We are still considered in a drought period so when this tap turns off again we could really be in for it.
In the Grand River/Grand and Hudson Lake watersheds climate change caused by global warming is having an impact on our water quality due to drought and flood cycles. While it is true we have man-made causes for nutrient loading in our surface water impairing our streams and lakes here, the drought and flood cycles make this problem much worse. The wet weather cycle we just have had washes the fertilizer and nutrients from cattle and other sources into our water bodies and then during dry times, this loading of nutrients can cause extreme cases of algal blooms and bacteria issues. We had this problem on Grand Lake during the Summer of 2012, which broke most of Oklahoma's all time heat records during a long drought lasting several years.
We need to be mindful of strategies designed to take climate change into consideration and to mitigate this problem to protect the environment and public health. Grand Lake and all its feeder streams are on the state list of impaired streams for not meeting their Beneficial Use Category of Warm Water Aquatic Life. This problem is the issue of Dissolved Oxygen which is caused by nutrients and sediment loading in the water body. Except for the upper Neosho River the problem is nutrient loading. This problem persists throughout the entire area of Grand Lake.
Fishers have always complained about catfish dying on trotlines if they weren't run regularly. The fish were starved for oxygen. I have seen the catfish surface for air. It's not supposed to be that way! People get sores that take a long time to heal on their hands from fishing and noodling. That's due to bacteria in the water. We need to make sure that septic tanks, boat sewage and marina sewage are not part of this problem!! We are all in charge of this! We need to follow the law on applying fertilizer and watch the Phosphorus application and stop at the right time and not over apply just to get the right amount of nitrogen. All the excess goes into the water. And, most important, do not apply on windy days. I see this violation a lot. Stop your neighbors if you see this. It hurts all of us; our heath and our environment. It is up to all of us. Don't wait for a regulation to make us do what is right. If we just do it, no government regulation is needed!!
This past year tried to make up for the previous drought years. Hard to do in just one year but sure tried hard. Floods in most of the state. Filled up most lakes and ponds but I don’t know if it has helped our ground water situation much at all, at least from all data and reports I am reading from various scientific sources. We are still considered in a drought period so when this tap turns off again we could really be in for it.
In the Grand River/Grand and Hudson Lake watersheds climate change caused by global warming is having an impact on our water quality due to drought and flood cycles. While it is true we have man-made causes for nutrient loading in our surface water impairing our streams and lakes here, the drought and flood cycles make this problem much worse. The wet weather cycle we just have had washes the fertilizer and nutrients from cattle and other sources into our water bodies and then during dry times, this loading of nutrients can cause extreme cases of algal blooms and bacteria issues. We had this problem on Grand Lake during the Summer of 2012, which broke most of Oklahoma's all time heat records during a long drought lasting several years.
We need to be mindful of strategies designed to take climate change into consideration and to mitigate this problem to protect the environment and public health. Grand Lake and all its feeder streams are on the state list of impaired streams for not meeting their Beneficial Use Category of Warm Water Aquatic Life. This problem is the issue of Dissolved Oxygen which is caused by nutrients and sediment loading in the water body. Except for the upper Neosho River the problem is nutrient loading. This problem persists throughout the entire area of Grand Lake.
Fishers have always complained about catfish dying on trotlines if they weren't run regularly. The fish were starved for oxygen. I have seen the catfish surface for air. It's not supposed to be that way! People get sores that take a long time to heal on their hands from fishing and noodling. That's due to bacteria in the water. We need to make sure that septic tanks, boat sewage and marina sewage are not part of this problem!! We are all in charge of this! We need to follow the law on applying fertilizer and watch the Phosphorus application and stop at the right time and not over apply just to get the right amount of nitrogen. All the excess goes into the water. And, most important, do not apply on windy days. I see this violation a lot. Stop your neighbors if you see this. It hurts all of us; our heath and our environment. It is up to all of us. Don't wait for a regulation to make us do what is right. If we just do it, no government regulation is needed!!
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