For as long as I can remember my grandmother's pond has been covered with algae, the thick slimy type. Though there was lots of it, the bottom of the pond, or at least the water around the outlet had been rocky. The other surrounding parts and bank had a marshy plant like lesser celandine, just as a marsh plant, and probably not invasive though it might be. It also didn't have flowers. I didn't take this picture.
http://www.inff.ie/index.php?do=photos&gId=19
When we were small we called this plant duck weed and it was only till recently I found out duck weed is a algae particle, microscopic. Oops. Anyway, it wasn't a major problem, because the algae died off in the winter, and it was fun to clean the algae coming towards the outlet. My cousin, sister, and I spent hours down there doing just that.
Then the disaster came. Over the past years the pond became worse. Now the level has sunk a few feet down, giving way to a marshy ground, with that marsh plant. My sister and I were walking on this marshy ground to see the muskrat burrow, when my sister's foot actually went through the ground! Because of this lowering water level, the outlet now lies empty with all the rocks gone and grass in it's place.
That's not the worst part. The algae is now in the middle, with duckweed, (the particles) near the edges. There are hundreds of frogs, which live near the edges and all jump into the water to escape you (we caught a few). And the bottom, oh the bottom is covered in a black sludge, with black leaves, grass, and mud. Even near the outlet now. It is nasty. The pond sadly looks dead. But I'm not going to give up trying to save it. This was my next project.
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