Helping pond owners make the most of their ponds . . . or future ponds!

Authors

Jim Ochterski is a senior extension educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension and recently served for six years as the natural resources specialist for the South Central New York Extension Agriculture Team. He received a bachelor’s degree in cell biology from the University of Rochester and a master’s degree in natural resources and rural landscape planning from the University of Michigan. He has worked for the Cornell Cooperative Extension for ten years, focusing on agriculture and natural resources issues. Jim has consulted with hundreds of pond owners throughout New York State and has reviewed and authored several Cornell Cooperative Extension bulletins on challenges ranging from pond structure development and weed eradication to commercial farm pond management.

Bryan Swistock is a water resources specialist in the College of Agricultural Sciences, School of Forest Resources, at Penn State University. He received a bachelor’s degree in environmental health from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a master’s degree in environmental pollution control from Penn State University. For the past twenty years he has conducted research, teaching, and extension programs on water resources issues throughout Pennsylvania. Bryan currently organizes and presents pond and lake management workshops and is a co-teacher for an online pond management course through Penn State University. He has also authored dozens of pond management fact sheets and publications through the Penn State Cooperative Extension.

Clifford Kraft, associate professor of fishery and aquatic sciences, Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University, first came to New York as an undergraduate student at Cornell University in the early 1970s then returned to his native Midwest to earn master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. During his seventeen years as a program manager for the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute, Kraft was engaged in diverse research and extension efforts related to managing fisheries in waters as large as the Great Lakes and as small as rural ponds. He has also been actively involved in research and extension work on zebra mussels. In 1998 Kraft returned to New York to join the faculty at Cornell University and conduct studies of coldwater fisheries throughout North America. He currently directs Cornell University’s Little Moose Field Station near Old Forge, New York.

Rebecca Schneider, associate professor and leader, Department of Natural Resources Extension, Cornell University, joined the Department in 1996 with a bachelor’s degree from Loyola College, a master’s degree from University of Virginia, and a doctoral degree from Cornell University. She leads an integrated research, extension, and teaching program that focuses on the eco-hydrologic basis for sustainable water resource management. Her current research includes roadside ditch impacts on stream health and stream networks in central New York watersheds; groundwater discharge processes along lake shorelines; evapotranspiration and groundwater linkages in wetlands; and plant influences on stream bank erosion.