Wednesday morning, residents of Cari Park may have noticed a bit of commotion around their ponding basin. Hastings Environmental Protectors (HEP) installed two floating islands into the pond at Cari Park as part of their approved Community Investment Fund project.   

Dwight Smith of HEP took a break to explain what they were doing. 

“We got the idea several years ago from my younger brother in Columbus, Ohio. He saw an article in the Columbus paper about these floating islands and how they function to help improve water quality. Knowing that I had an interest in this sort of thing, he sent the article to me. I started researching it and we have been thinking of doing this for some time. But we weren't sure exactly how we could finance it. This year, we came across the community investment fund that the city has and submitted a grant and the director of Parks and Rec. Chris Jenkins really got interested and excited about the project. So, Parks and Recreation have been a tremendous partner in this with us, and we've just finally put everything together. Hastings Environmental Protectors purchased the plants for the project, the city purchased the islands for us, and it's all going in now,” Smith explained. 

Smith expanded on the water quality improvements, “These ponds are just rainwater containment ponds, so, what gets into the pond is a lot of runoff from lawns in the area, which have a lot of nutrients, excess nutrients that cause the pond to develop a lot of algae and also deplete the oxygen content of the water which makes for a pretty bad smell late in the summer. What these plants do is send the roots down, almost two feet down, into the water and they start absorbing the excess nitrogen and phosphorus that's in the water. The water quality itself is improved by that and that makes it better for other plants and also the various animals, insects and bugs, the frogs, everything else that lives here. On top of that it's a rather attractive floating garden, so it's aesthetically pleasing. At the same time, it's taking all those excess nutrients out of the water, improving the water quality.” 

The floating islands are currently on the shoreline of the pond where volunteers can water them daily for the first few weeks. This ensures that the roots grow through the mesh on the bottom of the island and into the water where they can gather their own source of food, becoming self-sustaining. After the first two weeks, the team will return to the pond to move the islands to their permanent position. Smith said he may need to bring his full wetsuit to put the west end island in place. The other, a heart-shaped island, will be placed in the east end near the pollinator garden they installed previously. The islands will be moved by canoe or volunteers in waders and held in place by cinder blocks and cables and should be in place by the end of August. 

The total cost of the project is around $4,500 dollars with the bulk of the cost being the two islands at $1,800 each. The cost of the islands was paid for by the Community Investment Fund. HEP provided the plants, handled the planting and will do the upkeep of the islands. 

Hastings Environmental Protectors are always looking for projects like these around Hastings, and they are also always looking for more volunteers. If you are interested in contacting them for either, find them on Facebook by searching for ‘Hastings Environmental Protectors’.