Clearing a lake front

[chucko]

bout a new (to me) house on a lake and it has been allowed to grow up with cattail grass and all the other stuff that grows in the edge of a Fla lake.
Any suggestions?
was thinking of renting a mini excavator but I do not think they will run is much more than 6 inches of water and I need to get 2 to 4 foot deep

 

[smstonypoint]

Some herbicides are labeled for aquatic use and would seem more effective than mechanical removal.

I would check with the local authorities about any permits, licenses, etc. that are needed to apply the herbicides.

Steve

 

[Craig Clayton]

I am not sure of the rules in your neck of the woods but think in terms of protecting the shoreline. I would think in terms of putting in natural rocks to retain the shoreline from erosion. Then flatten the vegation and compost it on site. level it off and plant grass or native vegation varities. I am a little farther north our water freezes in the winter.
Craig Clayton

 

[chucko]

my other thought is some angle iron webled in a "V" with a handle coming from the point. Sharpen the v walk it out past the weeds and pull it in with my truck to cut the weeds off

 

[chucko]

 

[MarkV]

Aquatic herbicides is the answer. The question is whether you are allowed to do it. Florida does have many restrictions when it comes to lakes. Bringing in an excavator would be a short term solution. What you see now would be back in a couple of years.

MarkV

 

[chucko]

maybe not if it somehow got a little deeper at the same time

 

[Taylortractornut]

In florida their should be a few contractors with Menzi Muck, Kaiser, or Schaef Terex walking or spider excavators. We vacation down in St augustine every year and Ive seen quite a few. A contractor with one and a wide smooth edged clean out bucket would work wonders. It can wade out and stand up in the mud on its legs and dig and bail materal even if it had to move twice. I worked on a sediment pond clean up in Alabama one time that had a contractor that came in with one. The ground was so soggy that we couldnt even use dragline mats to get our 14 and 20 excavator out in the weeds. This pond was 5 feet deep at the edges and when it silted in to afoot the vegetaion took over. They brought this machine in and in 2 weeks cleared a mile of lake front with it. I would take the spoil with all the vegetaion to a good place to compost in a few months youd have some great topsoil.

 

[podagrower]

My brother in law made a weed cutter of sorts for his pond, long chain, hooked to 2 chains, hooked to a piece of angle steel. He wades out about 10' with the steel, then uses his tractor to pull out his "catch". Then he uses my tractor with the grapple to pick up the goodies and make compost out of it.

It is crude, labor intensive, and time consuming. You would need a lot of truck, or a very narrow blade to use a truck.

 

[phiferpharm]

I have a weedrazer ( spell it that way to get to link) and weed rake that I use to clear grass and lillie pads on my lake. I actually will tow it behind a jon boat, then use the rake to get what floats up. The razer sinks and cuts, the rake floats on the surface.

 

[chucko]

the weedrazer looks a lot like what I was going to make out of scrap angle iron.
Any problems with it digging into the bottom or maybe hooking on something to big to cut?

 

[phiferpharm]

No problems with snags or digging in, but you really need to be careful with the cutting edges, whiach are as sharp as a box cutter edge. It comes with blade guards you can put on when not using.