Poole Lake and the Weed invasion

Poole Lake is slowly being strangled by a weed growing in the water. Every year the council tries new way to combat this weed, blue dye to keep the sun light out, water tractor that harvests it and bales of hay dotted all over the lake. Well the blue dye turned the water and the swans blue but did little else. The water tractor only encouraged the weed to grow back fuller and denser, when you cut the grass it comes back better than before! The bales of hay are an old farmers trick but you need almost a full lake of hay to help. This year, as you can see by the photograph, the weed is back, in actual fact it never left. The mind boggles as to what the clever council will do this year.

If I was asked, I would use the water tractor once a month and cut the weed back, it is great for the children to watch and shows council workers in the water and not in their trucks drinking tea. Great fun and they will be able to make vast amounts of compost from all the weed. Also the Swans and Canadian Geese love the effect the tractor has on the water as it digs up the weed, bringing all manner of edibles to the surface.

There is another way but not really eco friendly. Drain the lake completely, spray it with weed killer, Roundup will do just fine as it dissipates once it has gone through the plant. Then just let it fill from the rain again, we have enough of that, and they do drain the lake every now and again. The fish I hear you say, well they go into the sea when it is drained or stay in small puddles until the lake fills again. Something to think about anyway. 
My neck is not stiff today in case you wondered.