This week eight of us enjoyed a muddy day in the sun (during lunch at least) at Hare Hill near Alderley Edge with ranger John Mann. At the start of the day, John showed us a path opposite the ticket office where you can walk through North park all the way to the Wizard pub/cafe in Alderley Edge. To the right of us were a couple of Jacob sheep, a British breed that commonly have four horns, neither of which paid us any attention.
Once we were all waterproofed, wellied and wadered-up, we started clearing the garden pond of 100s of years worth of built-up leaf debris and mud.
Other finds in the murky water included a broom head, animal bones, a piece of pot and a lot of broken glass.
First, we held open the ton builder's bags using metal sticks (technical term, anyone?!) in all four corners and, from wooden planks projected into the pond, started scraping out the leaves using drag forks.
Once the bags were full, the ranger threw us a chain connected to his RTV to hook the bags up one at a time and drag them out of the pond. By the end of the day we'd managed to fill up about 16 bags- that's a lot of forking!
The purpose of clearing the pond is so that, in the future, it can become a living habitat as at the moment it is ecologically dead. Once the bottom is fully cleared and vegetation is planted around the edges- hazel trees will be used to support the banks and prevent erosion- pond plants will be introduced and hopefully insects, newts and other wildlife will be attracted.
Thanks to John for having us and to everyone for their hard work!
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