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Lake Bottom Blanket 32 Juniper Road Wayne, NJ 07470 973-839-6383
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Where We Are and How We Got Here There are
two of us leading this development - Warren, the old one, an M.I.T. engineer
and Paul a Northeastern engineer. For fifty years Warren has lived on fresh
water lakes with varying aquatic weed problems. The Lake Bottom Blanket consists of a strip of plastic with laterally attached weighted ribs. When in the water the ribs settle to the bottom, pulling the plastic down. The plastic being lighter than water tends to rise between the lateral ribs forming the shape of a Quonset hut. At the top of the hut there are holes that let the gases of decomposition escape so that the Blanket stays in place. The sun does not get to the flora and in a couple of weeks the flora is dead; since the plastic sheet is above the bottom, the fauna are not effected. The flora that propagate by seeds may regrow but the flora (for example Eurasian Milfoil) that propagate from segments and from crowns will not regrow that season. Since the Blanket’s job has been done after a few weeks, it is best repositioned or removed and stored safely for the next season. Because of possible sedimentation and ice damage, the Blanket’s removal every Fall is highly recommended. We have spent a premium to live directly on the lake shore. Isn’t it worth a few extra dollars to be able to enjoy the water without the noxious weeds? |
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A
number of solutions have been tried including deepening the water, lowering
the lake in the Fall and holding it down thru deep frost, pulling the weeds
by hand and putting down heavier than water sun screens; a neighbor tried
renting a harvester; the lake on which we now live has been using chemicals. 
If the goal is to provide a summer in which we have weed free swimming
and boat docking, not to mention an area where one can cast a lure without
getting hung up on weeds, all have been failures. In the Late 1990's after spending many thousands in an attempt to deepen our waterfront, and still having problem weeds, we embarked on a research and development program
culminating in the current iteration of a sun screen we named The Lake
Bottom Blanket. 
The
design target was a device that was inexpensive and could be readily installed
by one or two people. This is a device that prevents sun from stimulating the growth
of weeds (flora) but does not interfere with the activities of subsurface
creatures (fauna). As such it is not a benthic barrier; it is a sun screen.
The Blanket is made of inert materials and only effects weeds. The same
effect could be accomplished by spreading a sun shield on top of the water
or putting chemical sun blockers in the water.