There was a lot of cut material left over from the last two work parties and, in preparation for the volunteer event,  it had been moved up to the woodland by the reserve car park during the week.

As part of the task on Sunday, two bonfires were set up to clear this material, which was rather appropriate as it was Guy Fawkes weekend!

A Family Hard At Work!

In addition there was clearance of the birch seedlings and saplings from the open heath (photo above).

Relaxing By The Fire At The End Of The Task

Next time we’ll bring potatoes along to bake in the fire – someone even suggested cooking bananas!

The next event will be on Sunday 12 December – all volunteers are welcome! See here for details.

This impressive sunset at Fleet Pond was recently captured by Barry Stevens and he kindly sent it to us.

If you have any especially interesting or evocative pictures of the pond, then we’re always keen to hear from you and to consider their publication on the blog or website.

Please email Colin Gray: colin@fleetpondsociety.co.uk

Please also consider entering them into the FPS Photo Competition (deadline 20 January 2011) – details here.

Picture credit: Barry Stevens

From left to right: Tim Ackroyd (Fleet Pond Ranger), Peter Martin (President FPS), Cressida Wheelwright (Natural England), Adam Green (Hart District Council), Colin Gray (Chairman FPS), Councillor Ken Crookes (Leader Hart District Council) and Geoff Dee (FPS Committee Member).

Cathy Holden, Fleet Pond Society (FPS) Committee Member, writes:

The fundraising Clearwater Campaign received a boost in early November when Natural England confirmed a Higher Level Environmental Stewardship (HLS) agreement consisting of a grant of £19,000 per year to Hart District Council. This agreement, and the support and involvement of partners including the Environment Agency, Hart District Council, the Fleet Pond Society and the Ministry of Defence, means that dredging can begin in several key areas of the Pond and that measures can be taken to reduce silting in the future.

Colin Gray says:  “Clearing the silt is a major task and we hope to draw in further funding, including sponsorship, to help us with an ambitious long term restoration programme. At Fleet Pond Society we have been encouraged by the support and advice from Natural England and we welcome this HLS agreement as the first stage in the restoration of the pond and adjacent habitats. This is a great project which has involved much hard work by the partners to bring it all together. We look forward to working closely with Natural England on future projects for this much loved nature reserve,”

Colin continues: “Sorting out the silting problems is, of course, our priority and our Clearwater Campaign will continue to seek funds for further dredging.  The other work, like wetland and heathland restoration, clearance of scrub, protecting local wildlife, control of invasive species etc, is also important.  Our volunteers will continue to help the ranger service with these tasks.”

Adam Green, grounds and countryside manager at Hart District Council, says: “This is an important project for the District Council and for local people. One of the things we will be contributing to the work is to seek extra funding, through section 106 agreements and other sources. We will also be doing much of the project management, working closely with the Fleet Pond Society and other stakeholders.”

Cressida Wheelwright, Natural England conservation adviser, says: “Funding this work through the HLS scheme will lead to clear improvements in the condition of the SSSI. We are sure that local people will see and enjoy the benefits from the £19,000 a year HLS grant. Partnership working on this project has been particularly important because it has allowed us to pool the expertise of the different organisations, both technical and local.

It has given us a consensus on the way forward and we now have an imaginative restoration plan which has the backing of everyone. It is also a clear demonstration of how we can deliver on the government’s Big Society and localism agenda. We have benefited in particular from the enthusiastic and knowledgeable involvement of the local Fleet Pond Society volunteers.”

We are very pleased to have been awarded this HLS grant by Natural England and look forward to working with them in partnership. However, this is just the beginning! We need to raise a lot more money through our Clearwater Campaign to ensure that the Pond retains its Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) category and allow us to make the restorations which will guarantee that the Pond is around to give pleasure to generations to come.

This news has also been reported by Natural England as well as by Get Hampshire.

Picture credit: Cathy Holden.

The Fleet Pond Ranger, Tim Ackroyd, writes:

Wetland restoration

Over the past few years, Hart District Council’s Countryside Service and Fleet Pond Society have been working on improving the wetland habitats around Fleet Pond.  This work has involved clearance of trees and scrub to allow wetland plant species to flourish.

As a result of this work, the marsh and reed bed habitats have been restored in several areas, with rare species of plants and animals being recorded once again, some for the first time in 80 years!

Natural England has also upgraded the conservation status of the habitats from unfavourable to recovering.  It is vital that this work continues to be able to achieve favourable conservation status.

This winter one hectare of young secondary woodland on the edge of Coldstream Marsh will be felled in order to continue with our restoration work.  Leaf litter and a layer of topsoil and plant roots will then be scraped off to expose the old seed bank of wetland plants. The resultant material will be banked up on the edge of the marshland. The trees that have encroached on the marsh over the years, shade out the wetland plants and reducing the biodiversity.

The area of young woodland is very low in biodiversity and has very poor wildlife value as it does not provide adequate habitat for birds, bats and other species that need trees.  This work will allow the wetland plants to colonise once again and will ensure that a greater number of species can use this habitat.

Lesser Water Plantain

Gelvert Stream Diversion

Within this felling block a narrow channel will be excavated to create a diversion to the Gelvert Stream. This work is part of the larger pond restoration work to reduce the silt deposition within the pond. This diversion channel will take silt laden water away from Sandy Bay and releasing the water more gradually at several points leading up to Boat House corner.

Detailed hydrological and topographical surveys will be carried out before the diversion work is carried out. This diversion will have a manual sluice system and will only be used in times of very high rainfall or flood events. The existing route of the Gelvert Channel will be uninterrupted the majority of time.

Dry Heath Scrapes

Management will be undertaken at the dry heath to help restore the valuable heathland habitat we have at the nature reserve. We will be carrying out turf scrapes with machinery. Previous woodland which has been removed to restore the heathland vegetation, have for several decades produced a thick layer of organic matter. This prevents the heathland plants from regenerating. It is therefore essential to remove this layer of organic matter to expose the old seed-bank of plants such as heather. Heather seeds can survive for more than 50 years in the soil and can quickly germinate and re-establish themselves once exposed to favourable conditions. Scrapes were carried out here in September 2008, but the invasion of mainly birch saplings means we will need to re-scrape this area to remove these saplings. Only a very shallow layer of soil will be removed and added to the existing spoil pile.

Scrub Clearance and Reed Bed Management

This winter the Countryside Rangers with the help of the Fleet Pond Society will be carrying out  some small scale scrub clearance and reed bed cutting, within the Marshland areas and in particular Fuglemere Marsh, Gelvert Marsh and Wellington Reed Bed.