19-10-2017 - Pond week

Last week was our pond TLC week at Kingston University. 

We undertook some much needed work at our pond in Penrhyn Road on Wednesday.

The large plant mat clocking light reaching the depths of the pond

Despite being filled with invasive plants, the pond is still a very valuable habitat for wildlife in the area. As well as being a home to a small population of frogs as well as damselflies; it's also important for pollinators in the area; with bees often seen landing on the pond plants to drink water. 

The main issue with the invasive plants is that they block all light entering the pond, impacting on any wildlife which need light entering the pond to help their life-cycle. 

Part way through the clearing process

We managed to work hard to temporarily clear out the majority of invasive plants, while leaving as many of the non-invasive plants in the pond as we can, to provide shelter for wildlife.

This is a job that has to be done yearly as it is not possible to remove all of the invasive species which are in the pond without drastic measures involving shading the whole pond and surrounding area to block light for a period of 18 months to kill all  plant matter in the pond.

As this would also have a detrimental impact on other wildlife in the pond, we unfortunately have to live with managing the existing invasive plants.

At the end of the event, with other biodiversity volunteers dropping in to check our progress :)

The negative impacts of invasive pond plants (and animals) and the difficulty in removing them is the reason why gardeners and aquarium owners are asked not to put any of their excess pond/aquarium plants in local waterways.

This blog entry from Waterside Nursery is useful as it contains information on new invasive plants which have been added to the banned list this year. If you are interested in finding out more about invasive plants and their impacts, the Be Plant Wise Campaign is one for you.

Two halves of a whole (pond) at Kingston Hill before works

We are lucky in that no one has yet added or transferred any invasive plants into our pond at Kingston Hill. Our aim for this pond is to maintain a balance between the open water habitat and the areas of emerging vegetation which wildlife such as newts and dragonflies use as part of their life-cycle.

Before and after

during the event, we had two different dragonfly species inspect our work as they patrolled their territories around the pond. Hopefully it passes muster and they will use the new areas for laying eggs. 

We also cleared away areas of vegetation blocking parts of the pond dipping platform from being used easily by students.

Francesca clearing the sedges from areas of the pond

We managed to get both ponds ship shape with very small teams during both events. 

Partway through the day and the new channel at the end of the day

My thanks to all of the volunteers for their hard work which have helped maintain and improve both ponds for wildlife. 

'Til next time...