It isn't just people affected by the relentless extreme heat and no rain. We see various signs of heat stress in our ponds, plants, and trees in our park system.
In our ponds, particularly shallow ones, the water temperatures are rising, and once temperatures reach around 85 degrees, we begin to see fish kills.
Due to the elevating temperatures, you may see some dead fish. Many of the fish will be eaten by other wildlife in the area. If they are not consumed promptly, parks
staff will remove the fish.
Our parks staff monitor fountains which help aerate and introduce oxygen to help aquatic life and water quality. Spray can also cause water loss through drift and evaporation, so our staff works to balance this situation. In city ponds, the team also utilizes wells to help with evaporation. However, in the extreme heat, we are experiencing, evaporation is occurring much quicker than the wells can keep up with.
