Over two successive week-ends TMAEG has managed to complete its winter maintenance of one of our community’s major assets, the Stonehill Pond. One of our biggest projects, this is a key feature of the Ash Brook Corridor which crosses Two Mile Ash from West to East.
We started with an overhaul of the pond itself; our annual clean-up seeks to remove fallen leaves and branches from the pond bed, to which has now to be added the clearance of the floating duckweed that has appeared in the last few years. This work is timetabled for December or January and needs to be completed before the frogs begin their spawning, an event that happens earlier and earlier each year with climate change.
On the first Saturday, the TMAEG team worked through heavy rain to complete the clean-up, both from in the Pond and from its margins.
It is important to recognise that this is a seasonal pond where water levels fluctuate considerably. With the record drought and the soaring temperatures that we experienced last summer it almost dried out; over the last few months it has switched to full following the heavy rain and run-off from the pond’s surroundings.
TMAEG aims to keep our pond ecologically rich, a habitat that supports a varied plant life (including the native flag iris planted by local members) and is attractive to birds and other fauna. That means maintaining an element of cover along its surrounding banks, a feature that we try to balance in landscape terms through retaining views from the path and the approaches to the pond.
A view across the pond from its eastern end
In rather nicer weather(!) a second group of volunteers took up the challenge of
enhancing the pond surrounds.
Before
Before and after pictures (above and below), each taken from the same spot- the Stonehill footpath.
After
A job well done for a special place