Restoring a Natural habitat to Clenemer
or
A Good Home for a Dabchick
For many years there seems to have been something wrong with Clenemer the village pond. It served what most people think is the most important function, to have a population of ducks for the children to feed, but for some who have an appreciation of wildlife it was not functioning anywhere nearly as well as it should. We have always been of the opinion that if the pond were good for wildlife once more that would also make it attractive to the villagers.
What had gone wrong with it? Well, it might be interesting to speculate upon ) but we weren't going to waste a lot of time doing so unless it revealed a valuable solution. There was anecdotal and factual evidence that it once supported more indigenous wildlife: crested newts, water crowfoot, starfruit, a dabchick, toad and frog migrations. Villagers recalled youngsters catching fish on rod and line. What features and conditions would help us feel that the pond is back to useful life for wildlife? My personal desired conclusion would be when a dabchick (or Little Grebe) is once again seen fishing on the pond.
Five years ago, a decision was made to try to reduce the silt load of Clenemer by dredging and thereby improve the water quality which in turn it was hoped would result in a pond which was a healthier freshwater habitat in which a much wider range of wildlife could thrive.
Recently Chris Wege put a lot of effort into writing a management plan for the pond. During this process Chris and I observed that the dredging had not seemed to make much of an improvement. It seemed like the same old pond with the same old problems. So we thought we would just do a few quiet researches to see what we could find that might more naturally improve the pond.
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| Mirror Carp Found in the Pond |
The first success was that Chris found information which described the detrimental effect that non-native and hybrid carp have on small ponds. Basically they eat the place out. They are a species which can completely dominate their environment if not controlled by predators.
Mirror Carp found the pond
Secondly, Chris found a human predator, a man who runs a fish farm who could come and deplete by removing many of the carp. He also has a long practical history of pond and lake management and came to talk to us on this speciality of his at our AGM in the village hall. Like many we were impressed by his knowledge and so are prepared to accept his advice. Chris and I have drawn up an intention list of processes which we would like to establish for the pond that could improve the water quality. They are:
Removing the carp
- Liming the pond
- Applying barley straw treatments
- Persuading people to feed the ducks on grain supplied in packets - see the RSPB advice on the village website
- Planting a reed bed to filter the runoff from the road drain.
- Planting the pond with indigenous aquatic plants once the conditions seem suitable for their survival.
We hope to begin work on the first three processes this autumn. Patience is required, these natural processes take time to work.
Graham Thorne
722540
More information about these three processes, with technical details, will be available on the website in due course.