Arboretum Won’t Chill Spirit |
Dubuque Arboretum Japanese Garden Pond (photo by Gary James) |
Jan. 14, 2006
John Hawley
For increasing numbers of children they are as likely to see nature on their television or the Internet as in a natural setting. Yet, community parks such as Iowa’s Dubuque Arboretum and Botanical Gardens have been especially nice for parents there seeking safe first-hand flora and fauna experiences for their children. Hand feeding the koi in the Japanese garden pond had been a popular activity until an equipment failure during the first week of 2006 resulted in the loss of over 300 of their watery pets.
Jack Frick, an arboretum volunteer was interviewed by KCRG-TV9 where he confided that looking at the pond now is ''almost too much to bare'' as it is like ''staring at a grave-yard.'' No longer do clapping hands bring forth a school of friendly fish foraging for feed. The founder of the Japanese garden pond died in October. More hand wringing than clapping now occurs as arboretum staff tries to garner the technical and financial resources to restock and maintain the koi pond.
Did the equipment failure alone cause the fish kill? Was the pond overstocked? Did the surface freezing over cause the calamity? Those are some of the questions Jackie Allsup, an Associated Koi Clubs of America, Koi Health Advisor living in Iowa is qualified to answer said KHA Program Director Spike Cover. Such expertise can be found throughout the country along with contact information for other regional experts at http://www.akca.org/kht/graduate.htm, according to Cover.
The Dubuque Arboretum and Botanical Gardens is funded completely by donations and operated by volunteers. In that spirit of volunteerism a swell of public support rose from koi-keepers around the country after the news spread of the Dubuque disaster. Calls of support quickly rolled into the arboretum after stories from area media hit the Internet (a few reports: http://www.woi-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4326201&nav=1LFX; http://www.kcci.com/news/5887191/detail.html; http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060106/NEWS08/60106004/1001/NEWS08)
Message board forums came alive with the conversations of how to help. ''I emailed the Arboretum last night,'' wrote, Tony Quitoriano of the KOI-UNIT club in Northern California on the Koi-Bito Magazine forum. ''I would think the local club would be seeking to help since they live in that neck of the woods.... Anyway, if these guys need fish they need to setup a quarantine tank process for the fish they get and they need to winter these fish indoors then release the fish in spring....'' Allsup is also a member of the Eastern Iowa Pond Society that will host a club meeting in February that Frick will attend in part to assess and brainstorm over future plans for the Japanese garden pond.
''I already emailed the Dubuque Arboretum to let them know that we are more than willing to help them out by donating some koi for them to replenish the fish as requested,'' Dinh Nguyen of the Santa Clara Valley Koi & Watergarden Club wrote. ''It seems like we would like to know a little bit more in details to understand the cause that killed them. With a large pond frozen over surface without water pump for just several days, it's difficult to understand the oxygen is the guilty party to the loss of 300 koi?'' Allsup reported that there were also hundreds of sunfish occupying the pond that contributed to rapidly reducing required oxygen supplies after the pump failed.
''Many of us have had pumps go out, so this is something that could happen to any of us,'' Greg Bickal of Toddville, Iowa wrote (www.bickal.com). ''The Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines has a mud pond with some 500+ large koi and they keep a hole open with a large airstone. I think they would run into problems pretty fast if it quit also. Ponds here are covered in ice from Mid-late November to Mid March. That’s at least 4 months. Water temp is below 50 for 6 months. Those are extreme conditions for koi to endure.''
As the freezes thaw, the warm hearted, congenial communications, and cooperation of these volunteers will no doubt blossom with Spring smiles of many Iowa children as they once more experience nature first hand at the Dubuque Arboretum and Botanical Garden Japanese style koi pond.
