During October the West Wight Pond Project and the Green Gym volunteers have been getting wet and muddy to help pond wildlife.
After a busy summer surveying ponds across West Wight, the pond project has identified many that need a helping hand to bring back some of their wildlife interest and landscape appeal.
Autumn to December is the perfect time of year pond maintenance work as this is when most species will be inactive.
A pond near Yafford was so overgrown with bulrushes that local residents didn’t even know it was there. Volunteers trimmed back scrub to open up views and pulled out some of the bulrush to create open areas of water, sheltered by the remaining wetland plants. Newts favour ponds with some open water as do many species of dragonfly and damselfly.
At Furze Butt Field in Totland volunteers have helped to cut back some of the willows in this balancing pond. This has created more light and warmth into the pond which allows wetland plants to grow. This month new ponds are also being created at Thorley and at Bouldnor to provide habitats for rare plant and amphibian species. For more information about the West Wight Pond Project contact Nicola Wheeler at the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust on 533180 or email nicolaw@hwt.org.uk.