Well there is mid term solutions, and short term solutions. Mid term is dig up the offending roots, but they will be back in a few years unless the source is eliminated. That is not easy medicine to take. Short term is you can add or build up the grade in that area by adding top soil. But within a year or two the tree roots will grow up from beneath and choke the grass. That is the problem with trees and lawns, they are in conflict some times depending on the type of tree. Example if you have a fruitless Mulberry, you got a huge problem on your hands. Not only can your lawn be threatened but also your home even if the tree is 50 feet away. Eventually the roots will find your plumbing and foundation and bust them to pieces. Fruitless Mulberries love septic systems.

Gar are supposedly found in southern Lake Michigan. I don't know about any special requirements, but there might be some. The best source for gar information I have found so far is wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gar Here is part of it: Gar in aquaria Gar are popular fish for public aquaria where they are often kept alongside other large, "archaic" fish such as sturgeon and paddlefish. However, a few species, most commonly Lepisosteus oculatus, are sometimes offered to aquarists as pets. They do of course need very large tanks but in all other regards they are easy to keep. They are not much bothered by water quality or chemistry, and are tolerant of a wide range of temperatures. Gar must be allowed to breathe air, so some clearance between the surface of the water and the hood is essential.[7][8] Gar get on well with any other fish too big to be eaten (such as large catfish, cichlids, and centrachids). They do not like aggressive tankmates, and despite being predators are essentially peaceable, sociable fish that do well with their own kind. Sturdy aquarium plants and bogwood can also be used to create hiding places, since gars are very fond of lurking in slightly shady regions.[9] Feeding presents no problems. Most will take all kinds of meaty foods, including mealworms, crickets, earthworms, frozen lancefish and shrimps (defrosted), and strips of squid. Oily fish (like salmon and mackerel) as well as fish guts will quickly pollute an aquarium but are very effective at tempting newly introduced specimens to eat. Once settled in many specimens will also eat floating pellets as well. There is no nutritional reason to feed gar live fish, and cheap goldfish or guppies ("feeder fish") in particular tend to introduce parasites into an aquarium. Here is a link that might be useful: Gar according to Wikipedia

poppa - there was a fun post a while back about mistakes-always happen. Mine has been that I was determined to have no more than stones and water in the greatest volume I could push uphill and let run down two streams and a bunch of falls. Simplicity--which doesn't apply to ponds I have discovered. Figured I needed no more than big skimmer and leaf baskets, sort of skimmed over filtration issues figuring I would have none. Now here I am. newbirdman-I can clean it, just did as you suggested, worked great until rain - and I am supposed to know something or other about erosion, siltation. Pond is only about 2000 gallons and I am turning water over 7 times/hour, silt racing through the pumps. So my basic question is what kind of filtration can/should I add before pumps and keep water volume too. I can plumb second pump to skimmer but that still leaves one suction line unprotected. Another skimmer would be tough but big pumps are expensive. Bottom drain is not feasible as pond is underlain by groundwater drainage system. Anybody deal with external pump pre-filters that might help me? Or have I overdesigned and underplanned myself into a corner? Mike

This is going to be long and drawn out. Me and my husband bought a house that we have been remodling, new tub, tiolet, sinks everything. The house is on a concrete slab and its in the mississippi delta area (very flat, sandy ground close to sea level). At first we didn't see any problems with the drains, when you turn a faucet on it runs out as fast as the water flows and we have very good water pressure. We hooked up the washing machine and it almost immediatly overflowed, so we thought it was the pipe from that drain and we used a snake, we didn't come up agianst any kind of clog though, but we heard a gurgeling noise coming from the bathroom while we were doing this, and I looked and the toilet was bubling, bad...like water boiling. So, then the toilet wasn't flushing very well, we had to plunge it. next, we filled the bathtub up a little bit with water and let it drain, more bubbles came out of the toilet, and the tub didn't drain well, this suggested to us that the vent had became clogged with a bird's nest or something so we got a longer auger, a flat one with a large diameter weight at the end to put down the vent, we still were not met with any resistance, as a matter of fact you can look staight down the vent pipe with a flash light and see water. The area in which we live is very flat and we have had some hard rain in the past couple of days, the whole place is flooded. My question is our problem related to the local drainage backing up into our sewer lines, or do we likely have a main sewage problem, tree roots or whatever? The neigbors say that there toilets gurgel when it rains too, but they don't have the problems as bad as we do. Should we wait for the ground to dry up and see if the problem resolves itself, or should we hire a plumber? If we do have a problem with our lines, what is the chances that it is in the yard as opposed to under our concrete slab?