Creating a pond riparian
After a glorious few weeks weather-wise at Fromebridge, a wake up call this morning with a bitter cold wind blowing across the reserve. We met up with Stroud Valleys Project to continue planting activity around the new pond. Winter hats, several layers and three pairs of socks in waders were all required.
On arrival at the site, Pete told us that the heras protective fencing around the pond had blown down overnight ... but ... not the section we put up a couple of weeks ago. We put in some V sections every fourth fence which kept it standing.
The smaller pond has been completed, so the task now is to do the same around the larger one.
Pete gave us a briefing, and it’s essentially the same process, although there’s a bit more leeway because the water body is larger.
I didn’t really fancy putting my hands in the water, so perfected a technique of making a slit in the pond floor and heeling in large clumps of vegetation so they don’t float away.
By lunchtime we had pretty much completed one side of the large pond, which was pretty good progress given the conditions. In the final hour, we started on the other side which for some reason was a lot more goopy than the rest of the pond. The pond floor was like quicksand and difficult to walk through.
