Regenerative Ranching Runs Downstream
Land management decisions have consequences – both good and bad – for your ranch’s watershed and the health of your bodies of water.
Land management decisions have consequences – both good and bad – for your ranch’s watershed and the health of your bodies of water.
One of the most common calls we get during late summer regarding pond management is about a pond full of dead fish, and the owner wants to know what happened. People are worried the water has been poisoned and is unsafe. The vast majority of time, the fish kill is a result of low dissolved oxygen levels in the pond.
If your pond is low due to drought conditions, this might be the perfect time to renovate poor or marginal largemouth bass, bluegill and channel catfish populations or eliminate undesirable fish such as bullheads, common carp, warmouth and green sunfish. If your pond is dry, you will need to make plans to deepen it before stocking fish next spring when, hopefully, it’s full again.
Water quality is one of the most overlooked aspects of pond management – until it affects fish production.
We receive several summertime calls from fishermen asking about fish infested with parasites. Most often, they are concerned about identification of the parasite and the safety of eating parasite infected fish.
Pond fencing helps reduce erosion and improve water quality where livestock create bare banks and trails along a pond.