LAFAYETTE, La. — The pond at Girard Park is drawing attention due to a thick layer of green vegetation covering nearly its entire surface. Some neighbors have begun to question what’s causing it and whether it needs to be addressed.
Ron Boustany, a retired biologist who spent 25 years focusing on ecology and restoration of aquatic and wetland ecosystems, said the pond is covered with duckweed, a common native floating aquatic plant typically found in swamps and marshes.
"It's not harmful directly, it just carpets the pond," Boustany said. "But indirectly what it does is shade the water, blocks the sun, reduces the amount of photosynthetic activity that occurs in the water which creates the oxygen for the fish. It could potentially kill the fish."
Boustany said there are diffferent approaches to restoring the pond to its original state, with chemical treatment being the most common method by using herbicides to kill the vegetation.
The cleanup would cost the city between $1,000 and $1,500, according to Boustany.
"It's really a matter of managing," he said. "You can see it coming on if it starts to go invasive like this, then you want to treat it a little earlier if you can. But in this case it's completely covered up, you just have to treat it, but you can recover it pretty quickly."
Two park visitors said they support cleaning the pond from the duckweed, but are more concerned about litter in the water.
"We should definitely look at getting the pond cleaned up because we have a lot of animals here like the squirrels and the ducks," Ivan Jones, a University of Louisiana at Lafayette student said. "I see trash floating on top of the green stuff now."
Another resident noted the seasonal nature of the problem but expressed frustration with littering.
"It's always been like this every year. It's eventually going to clean up. The only thing I see wrong is the trash I see people put in the water and that's a shame," said Nicholas Gilbert.
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