Ridge Workday 7th May 2005

A mixed bag of activities took place today. First of all, some urgent repairs were needed on the main steps in the wood. Some of the side supports needed repairs and additional support put in elsewhere. The side supports are primarily there to retain the chippings on the path and steps in this area, keeping the path mud free during the winter months or wet periods.

Paul, Bob and Mike handled this admirably and new supports were gleaned from old wood found in the area and pegged, again with recycled wood. All good stuff.

Meanwhile, Elisabeth and Lee tackled the Oak Tree Pond. The area cleared of reeds a short while ago was now rapidly filling with blanket weed and needed clearing before it got out of hand.

Non-leaking wellies and a steady pair of feet were needed to wade in and rake away all the invading plant. The task was made more difficult by swarms of tadpoles which were getting tangled in the weed.

It was great seeing so many, but it slowed us down making sure none were caught in the weed we were dragging out!

Next stop, the Community Pond. Same problem - different weed. This time it's Duckweed which has completely choked the water. As you can see from the picture on the left, the entire surface has been covered!

There was also concern over the amount of shading that this pond receives. Again, from the picture it can be seen (at mid-day) that this pond gets almost no sun because there were so many trees close to the edge of teh pond.

Adding to the pond's problems was the fact that the feed to the pond from a stream was not functioning properly, and there was little water movement. Time for the Friends to spring into action!

Elisabeth and Lee, becoming proficient at pond wading, dived in (well OK, not literally) and started the long process of clearing the surface. The photo to the left is the 'after'. Good job (although we suspect not for long with this weed).

In the meantime, Mike started tackling the overhead branches that were casting too much shade. You can see we've left most of the pond still in shade, but made a portion of it sunnier. Paul and Bob joined us at this point and started tackling the pond feed leak. Soon the pond was receiving a much greater water flow.

At the end of all the activities we were left with a pile of the overhanging branches that had been cut down. It's tidy-up time. Here in the picture above we can see Elisabeth, Paul and Maureen chopping it all up into smaller pieces which were then piled into a nearby copse for wildlife to use as a habitat.

A very productive day and one that left us all feeling very pleased with the results.