Sir: The Blob returned to Southern Ontario last year. No, not the remake of the cheesy Sci-Fi B movie from the 1950s starring Steve McQueen.
The Blob is the algae that engulfed the eastern end of Lake Erie last year. Lake Erie experienced its largest algae bloom in history. The second largest was only four years ago. Larger ones are yet to come.
There is always some algae in waterways and lakes, but when it overgrows an area, it can kill fish removing too much oxygen from the water.
Besides being bad for fish, it is also bad for tourism in the area. Too much algae makes fishing less appealing and makes going to the beach not very pleasant either.
Unfortunately, part of the cause of these blooms originates right here in Chatham-Kent. One of the causes of the algae blooms is runoff from our land, both urban and rural. The runoff contains fertilizer and other nutrients that feed the algae, and it grows at a higher rate than normal.
Another concern is that if nutrient materials are running off yards and land, then it is likely other chemicals (pesticides and pollutants) are running off the land as well.
I ask all teachers in the Chatham-Kent and Essex areas to have all of their students Google “algae blooms in Lake Erie.” They will see for themselves the NASA satellite images of the blooms on the lake in vivid detail. They will also recognize familiar places to them like Point Pelee and Rondeau Bay.
Your students will see that you do not need to go to the Oil Sands in Alberta or the melting Polar caps to see the effects of human practices on the environment but there are issues in our own backyard. They could even brainstorm solutions to the problem and become involved in working on solutions in their own neighbourhoods.
The good news is that we can all do something to reduce the effects of runoff into the waterways. By increasing the amount of natural landscape (tall grasses, trees, unmanicured natural areas) along the edges of rivers, streams and drainage ditches, we would reduce the runoff of fertilizers as well as sprays into the waterways. This would require farmers not to plough to the edge of drainage areas.
Homeowners and commercial property owners who are fortunate enough to have property along a river or stream could assist by leaving a strip of untouched area along waterways (more birds, more natural appearance, and healthier fish stocks in rivers). The rivers and streams are much more attractive from the water and land when the edges are left natural.
You see in commercials that people are searching for natural areas to visit that have not been overtaken by human activities. We can reverse much of the damage that has been done along our waterways with a little creative landscaping and a small adjustment in farming practices.
This does not need to be an expensive process, just leave a strip of land along the waterways uncut or unploughed. This needs to be on the flat part of the land because once the water starts going down the bank, there is no stopping it.
Once the land is left uncut, nature will do the rest.
If you would like to speed up the process, a nice touch would be to plant Carolinian trees, shrubs, grasses and flowers.
If you are more of a Type A personality and feel compelled to have more control on the environment, you could plant an English style garden with grasses and flowers that would benefit the birds, bees and butterflies in your area.
If everyone along a ditch, stream or river would create these natural filters for the runoff, the fish in the waterways will thank you, the birds and bees and butterflies that benefit from the additional habitat will thank you and your children, their children and their children will thank you.
Alan Farquhar
Chatham-Kent
