Neglected Pond - please help

[Norfolkjo]

Hi, can anyone help? A school I work at part-time has a badly neglected pond. The pond has a liner but even when I worked there 10 years ago no one new how old it was. The water level has remained fairly stable over the last few years but I teach outdoor learning in an adjacent area and this year it has gone right down, dropping by approx 60-70cm. The pond is about 3m x 5m. A couple of years ago the pond surround was encased with decking but last year we were permitted to remove one edge (leaving a horseshoe) so we now have a sloping 'beach' end. The pond is now almost completely full of reeds, no flag irisis this year (we used to...) and almost full with leaves as it is overshadowed by a large maple. The pond is silting up and the whole area is full of dock, burdock, comfry, horsetail and nettles to name a few. The frogs and newts seen last year, not this. Struggling water lillies too. To be honest it grows faster than me and a couple of volunteers with no time and no money can cope with! Anyway, friday I found out that we have a team of volunteers coming from a local business to sort it out on 16th Nov. Hence the long winded post - advice please! I think we have go for a full clear out????

[artdemole]

Best idea to clean out pond and maybe renew liner perhaps a donnation from a local source may help.

[GCN lova]

hi

it looks like the liner should be changed as said before. you should keep some of the plants but compost the rest. couldnt you make a club to look after it? how deep is it and do you have any photos? where they Great Crested Newts because i think you need a liscense to clear out their pond.

GCN lova

[Dogghound]

Can you post some photo's?

It sounds like you may need to remove most of the reed, I would also remove most of the platform and possibly cut the tree back or remove it depending on where it is. You could then plant some more trees in an apropriate area. The liner may not be broke, it has been quite dry this autumn (here) and a lot of ponds are low. As GCN lova says it would be worth finding out what is in the pond and how you can manage it for those species and attract other species in the local area. If you do have Great crested newts you may need to do it under licence, although you should not be put off by this.

It would be useful if you could provideas much info as possible such as species, size, depth, location, surrounding habitat etc.

[Tringa]

I too think a full clear out and repair (or replacement) of the liner is the best option.

Clearing it out will cause very little disturbance to any frogs and newts (I'm ignoring the possibility of GC newts) until you have very little water left in the pond. Our much smaller pond was very murky and when we emptied it we did not see any frogs and newts until the depth of water was down to about 6 inches.

I think there is a bit more of a problem as you will need time to repair or replace the liner before you can refill it and the animals will need somewhere to hide out until the pond is ready again. As long as there is some undergrowth, pile of logs etc they should be fine.

Do you also have somewhere to get rid of all the plants you remove and, probably more important, the sludge.


Dave

[Tursiops2]

It does sound like a complete clean-out, re-lining and re-planting might be in order, but some photos would help decide.

When you say "reed", do you mean the Common Reed Phragmites phragmites? If so, this isn't really suitable for a 3m x 5m pond, it takes over too quickly; so if you clean it all out, don't put it back in.

T2

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by Norfolkjo

A school I work at part-time has a badly neglected pond.

Schools are a challenging set up for dealing with wildlife ponds - issues of health and safety and insurance bring a whole raft of concerns for the school management. The cost of long term management of the pond is also an issue (hence the level of neglect) and it may be that the Governors would actually want to have the costs of management accounted for over the next several years. I'd suggest you get some expert advice from a source familiar with school located ponds, otherwise you'll run into unexpected problems. If your user name indicates your location then this may be a place to start: Norfolk Wildlife Trust - Education and make sure you've at least got some of the Governors onside.

CM

[King Edward]

I also think it would be very useful to see some photos, of the pond and its surroundings. If the liner can't be repaired and you need to replace it (probably best if it's quite old anyway), 0.85mm or 1.0mm EPDM should be suitable (with Polyfelt TS60 underlay). See here.

Are the reeds actual Common Reed (Phragmites), or perhaps Bulrush (Typha)?

And how deep is the pond at the deep/shallow ends?

[Norfolkjo]

I have taken a photo but I dont know how to upload it on this site? It says images have to come from the WAB Gallery or the image library? Sorry, I'm new to all this! Depth is difficult to establish, some areas are 30cm but there may be a deeper bit. No one knows, have an awful feeling we may need to appeal for waders... The chair of governors is the one who has organised to bring his colleagues for a work day so he's on board. Thank you for all your points - no sign of great crested newts, plenty of handy log piles to hide in (and under the blasted decking) so I really hope anything we displace will cope with the likely delay between emptying and re-filling. I really dont know what reeds they are, will try to find out - certainly never seen those classic bulrush heads. Im thinking of filling big tubs to hold the salvageable plants as kind of holding tanks? Any thoughts on this? Thanks also for the liner tips - I wonder how they would replace it with the decking going round on three sides. The photo showed things had started to die back and it almost didnt look as bad but then when I show the pic everyone says 'what pond?'

[Norfolkjo]

I think I've done it???