Save Ottumwa Post August 14, 2024

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•••••AUGUST 14, 2024•••••

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Fish Kill This spring and early summer, the lake was crystal clear. This makes for great fishing and pleasant times just boating around.

One problem we have is clear water allows sunlight to reach farther into the depths of the lake which encourages weed growth. A few weeds are good as they provide habitat and food source for small fish. Too much weed and grass cover cause problems. I have done a considerable amount of research on ways to control the weeds with less than perfect solutions.

There are chemical herbicides that are allegedly safe for the fish and other wildlife that use the water. A label from the government on the chemical container stating it is safe does not convince me I would like to eat fish than have been swimming around in water mixed with herbicide strong enough to kill aquatic weeds. I have trust issues with govern-

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Another form of weed control is a dye put in the water that blocks the sunlight getting to the growing plants. Most of the dyes come in an attractive blue color. One drawback is killing to many weeds at one time can deplete the oxygen level in the water causing the fish to die of asphyxiation. The other problem is the cost. It might be practical for a small pond of an acre or less but to treat seventeen acres would cost thousands of dollars.

As summer wore on, the weed problem only got worse. It got to the point where it was difficult to launch a boat. The weeds coming up from the bottom of the lake would get tangled in the propeller of the boat motor.

When a person did get out into the deeper water past the weeds, a fisherman’s hook would become fouled in the submerged weeds on almost every cast. This was very frustrating, but I decided we would just have to live with it until the weeds died back in the fall. I was neither going to spend a fortune on a temporary solution nor risk the health of anybody or anything that used the lake.

One day, mother nature interceded. The problem of the water being too clear, and the resulting weed growth was corrected

by a couple of torrential rainstorms. The ground in the drainage area rapidly became saturated causing most of the rain to run off bringing silt with it. In one day, the lake went from seventeen acres of crystalclear water to close to sixty acres of what appears to be chocolate milk. With sunlight no longer able to penetrate the cloudy water, the submerged weeds quickly began to die.

Though not as severe as the chemical controls of weeds, we did experience a fish kill. When the water level dropped back to normal, we went out in a boat to retrieve the dock that got away and check for damage.

We found perhaps a hundred crappie and bluegill that had died.

We did not find any dead catfish or bass.

Nature seems to have a way of correcting problems without our interference. The aquatic weeds are now under control with the only cost being a minor fish kill. The dead fish are rapidly being cleaned up by a pair of eagles, a great blue heron, and the turtles.

To me, a minor fish kill is a small price to pay to again have a useable and safe lake full of water.

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Dr. Scott Slechta, Father of Education Curt Swarm, Empty Nest

I get occasional emails from readers, most of them complimentary of my Empty Nest column.

(I really do appreciate this feedback.) This particular email, however, was outta sight.

It was from Dr. Scott Slechta who lives with his wife, Tricia, on St. Simons Island, Georgia.

It seems he grew up in Vail, Iowa, was a school teacher in Iowa, was Teacher of the Year in 2016, and has followed my Empty Nest column in his hometown newspaper, “The Observer” for years.

What he said about my writing is the greatest compliment I have ever received. Any writer would love to hear this, and coming from him, a Doctor of Education, it’s priceless. He said I am “Iowa’s Garrison Keillor, Robert Frost and Mark Twain rolled into one.”

Well, shut the front door! If he had thrown in “Donald Kaul” I could have died and gone to heaven. Needless to say, I have Dr. Scott Slechta’s quote taped above my desk. Whenever I feel a little down, which all of us do from time-to-time, I go and

reread this quote. It’s a on-six basketball, junior wonderful picker-upper. high track, yearbook, Scott Slechta was drama and speech. raised on a farm in Vail, Scott knew that Iowa, which is southif he wanted to get west of Westside, Arca- anywhere teaching, dia and Breda. Got it? he needed a graduate He was a good student degree. So, after two at Ar-We-Va High, ran years at Marquette, track and was college it was off to UNI for bound, which was Simp- a Masters Degree in son College in Indiano- Teaching English in la. He received a BA in Secondary Schools, English in 1980, with a with endorsements in coaching endorsement. journalism, theater, com(If you want to be hired munication and speech. as a teacher, you have He and his wife Tricia to have added value.) met as summer counMarquette High School selors at Camp Hantein West Point, Iowa, sa, in Boone, IA. snapped him up. At the Then it was off to Catholic school the nuns Fairfield from 1984 to took him under their 2016 (32 years). It was habit. He taught Eng(Empty Nest cont’d on pg 4) lish, coached girls six-

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(Empty Nest cont’d from pg 3)

in 2016, nominated by students and faculty, that he was awarded the prestigious title of Teacher of the Year. He took a year sabbatical and traveled the state and nation as an ambassador for the Iowa Department of Education. He met President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden. He went to Huntsville, AL, Princeton, NJ, San Antonio, TX and Tampa, FL. He went across the state from river-to-river and border-to-border for presentations, professional development and educational training.

He earned a Doctorate of Education and taught English classes at Simpson College in Indianola and Grandview University in Des Moines. He was Teacher Academy Facilitator for Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) for six years.

Even after retirement at St. Simons Island, Georgia (sunny beaches and warm weather year around), he is still teaching at DMACC on-line, and substitute teaching at Frederica Academy on St. Simons Island.

Teaching is his life, his passion.

I asked him to review one of my books. Not only did he review it, but he wrote a glowing four-page, typewritten analysis of the book’s key points. I was stunned. He simply said, “It’s how I review all my students’ writing.”

(No wonder he was Teacher of the Year!)

Earlier this year Scott Slechta was invited back to Fairfield High School where he, along with two other teachers,

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Linda Mitcheltree and Jim Edgeton, received the prestigious honor of having the high school auditorium named after them: Mitcheltree-Slechta-Edgeton Performing Arts Auditorium. Far out, man!

It is now my turn to bestow an honor.

You, Dr. Scott Slechta, are the 21st Century’s Horace Mann, The Father of Education.

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