TA1LGUNN3R wrote:Sorry. I'm sure the exposure would be great for you, but this looks like another fucking ridiculous show that has almost nothing to do with nature or biology. Throwing in a couple of token turtles won't fix what happened to channels like the history channel or the discovery channel.
Damnit, when I watch the national geographic channel I watch it to see some nekkid peoples in the Amazon or Africa, not some whiteys who are selling some crap I don't care about!
-TG
At first glance, most people would think you make a great point and if I did not know anything about ponds, I would agree with you. But since I am a pond builder and understand and experience the effect on local ecosystems first hand, I will spend a few minutes sharing my knowledge and then let you decide if pond builders should be on nat geo wild.
Aquascape ponds (and most ponds that are built) are based on an "ecosystem philosophy"...basically, use mother nature instead of fighting against her. that means we set up ponds to be as natural as possible, avoiding chemicals...the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) philosphy.
this means that each one of the ponds I install become their own little micro ecosystem that effects the local ecosystem. After all, water is the basis of life and life needs water...think about those traditional Nature shows you like where they set up a camera at a body of water in Africa to watch the animals interact...really this little pond in a backyard is no different...just instead of crocodiles eating some type of deer, you have bullfrogs catching dragonflies (or so on)
Most of the ponds my company builds, and most contractors I know, end up in suburbia. Suburbs are typically areas that have had nature bulldozed to build houses right on top of each other on their little lots. Then a monoculture of sod is installed and a homeowner spends their summer spraying chemicals and watering it to keep it green and pretty. Hardly a place for natural ecosystem. Pretty similar impact as cutting down a rain forest...in both cases nature is wiped out in the area.
then someone like me comes into a backyard and builds a little piece of paradise (little is in the mind of the beholder...my avatar is just a small piece of 100k pond install and last season i had a client spend over 200k on their pond, however most of my pond installs cost my clients 6-10k). Well anyway...the person loves what i have built and then they start enjoying it. Before they know it, you have a scene out of "Field of Dreams"...."if you build it, they will come". "They" being everything that suburbia pushed out.
Pretty much i just built an "oasis" for nature in the middle of a dessert.
i bought my house in surburbia in 2004. In 2005, I tore out the lawn and put my pond in. then next to it, i planted some native prairie. Here are some of things I witness by walking out my backyard on a quarter acre lot every day:
flowering native water plants
koi swimming in my pond...and them spawning every spring
local birds bathing in my pond
multiple species of frogs
toads...tons of toads (and tadpoles every year spring)
butterflies
dragonflies...at least 5 in my yard at any time
insects...so many varieties
rabbits
Here are some of the things i have witnessed on occassion:
A hawk swoop down and take a koi out of my pond
A turtle make my pond his home for a week before moving on.
A blue heron standing in my pond trying to catch a fish
a bull snake (very rare to see)...pretty sure i scared him more than he scared me when i almost stepped on him.
an owl on my patio eye balling my fish
then there is the impact of a pond on a child growing up in the suburbs. just a month ago or so, the neighbor kids asked if they could come over and see my pond and feed the fish. After them getting permission they came on back and I broke out the fish food and they started feeding them (the fish were eating out of their hand). Next thing i know, a kid around 12 asked if he could stand on a lily pad. after i said no and being Confused, i asked why he would think that. He responded that he could in his minecraft game and he had never seen a "real lily pad".
I have carried on long enough...i invite you to read through this and learn more about the ecological impact a pond has on a local ecosystem. then you can decide if a show like this should really belong on a station that focuses on nature.
http://www.aquascapeinc.com/upload/PBB-Chapter02.pdf
