Buffalo Lake Harvesting Prevents Growth of 487 Tons of Algae

Congratulations are in order to Buffalo Lake Protection & Rehabilitation District! Our customer recently mentioned they removed 1300 loads of weeds so far this year with their fleet of Aquarius equipment.

Buffalo Lake is actually a flowage consisting of 2500 acres and is very shallow with a maximum depth of 8 feet. The shallow waters along with a mostly muck bottom create the perfect setting for aquatic plant growth. And, when Wisconsin lakes have a bad weed year, Buffalo Lake has a really bad weed year.

Stick with me on the math.

• 1300 loads x 10,000 average pounds (lbs) per load on each harvester =13,000,000 lbs of wet weeds
• Estimating a 5% dry weight = 650,000 lbs of dry weeds
• Estimating a dry weight phosphorus content of .3% (to be confirmed by a lab) means that 1,950 lbs of phosphorus was removed by the harvesting program this season.
• Generally speaking, 1 lb of phosphorus can support the growth of 500 lbs of algae.
•  The Aquatic Plant Harvesting program prevented upwards to 975,000 lbs of algae growth in Buffalo Lake.

Read More: Phosphorus Removal by Plant Harvesting on Lake Minnetonka

Aquatic Plant Harvesting: An Economical Phosphorus Removal Tool in Urban Shallow Lake