The History and Natural History of the Pond.

One of the aspects that people don’t realise is that voluntary conservation work is really fun. Let me explain, on Thursday I was out with the Countryside Wardens working on a wildlife pond. Ponds, or any healthy body of water are vital for all wildlife. However, most small ponds need to be managed carefully for them to be successful habitats.

In the past Most villages had their own ponds, these were mainly man made but were not dug as ponds but resulted from pits being dug to extract the clay to make the bricks to build the cottages that created these villages. However unlike much of the industrial scale work, these were dug by hand. Further they were managed as an important resource for the community. They provided drinking water for horses, the main source of power and transport. They provided food, as ducks would often colonise them. But more importantly, they enabled reeds and sedges to be grown and these were vital as roofing material. It was not until the coming of the railways that slate, from Wales, became more widely used, thus most cottages were thatched.

It was this annual harvesting of the reeds and sedges that prevented the village pond from silting up and drying up. Thus without that type of traditional harvesting modern wildlife ponds have to be managed to keep them from just becoming areas of boggy mud. That was the task in question, cutting back the vegetation and removing it from the water.

Now anything to do with water can be fun anyway, but get a crazy bunch of volunteers together, and we must be crazy to be doing it in the first place, and it’s a wonder that we get anything done because we are laughing all the while.

There was one chap who was keen to use the waders, simply because he had never used them before. We all joked about rubber fetishes. I bet you never guessed that conservationists were so kinky. Also, no matter how careful you are we all get wet and muddy doing a task like this.

But there is real excitement as while we are working, we get to see the wildlife in the pond; Smooth Newt, Great Diving Beatles, Frogs, Toads, and we are all like children rushing to see these creatures. There is also the delight of the wonderful smell of Water Mint as we are working too.

While it is hard work, the satisfaction and fun is amazing.