Floating Islands As A Pond Management Tool

摘要

Six years ago, Fountainhead LLC, initiated a long-term development project to enhance the biocomplexity on a 234-acre farm located adjacent to the Yellowstone river about 30 miles east of Billings, Montana. The project's goal was to improve water quality while synchronizing with wildlife and a farm operation focused on perennial crops (like asparagus, alfalfa, crown vetch, raspberries, certain warm season perennials such as Maximillian sunflower and Indian grass, and cherry orchards). Another important facet of the project was that, except under emergency conditions, pesticides, herbicides and synthetic fertilizers or genetically modified seeds were not to be utilized. Relative to water quality there were three additional goals...designing the farm's water resources with aquaculture in mind and clarification of the turbid irrigation water as well as phytoextraction of salts present in the farm's groundwater. As a result of this project an invention has developed, a floating island concept that represents an effective new tool relative especially to water quality, wildlife enhancement and aquaculture goals.