A watery paradox

Jane Williams
2 days ago
2 min read

Our beautiful Wood Norton site is all about the ponds. From the first squelchy visits in the days before paths, to building Felbeck Trust’s only launch jetty, to Trevor’s spectacular icy immersion, much of what happens at Wood Norton is shaped by what the water is up to.

And it gets up to a surprising amount. Once upon a time, we thought we knew where the water levels would sit – and we built some fantastic corduroy paths around the edges to improve volunteer access. Then the water levels rose unexpectedly, and dramatically. Our lovely paths washed away, and a rethink was required. A short boardwalk solved the problem on the northern boundary, but over on the eastern side access remained much trickier. Now, after many bone-dry months, water levels at Wood Norton are the lowest we have seen there, and vast areas of sludgy mud lie exposed.

Which as it turns out is rather handy… What better time to get wellies on, get into spots which are usually submerged, and install a state-of-the-art boardwalk, well above the highest water point, and bridging around 30 feet of pond on the eastern side.

Such was the main work of the day, as eleven volunteers gathered on a muggy October morning of low cloud and got stuck into one of the most jaw-dropping before and afters I have seen in my time with Felbeck Trust (and, as we know, the competition is tough on that front).

One side of the framework of posts and supports was already in place, thanks to an earlier work party. Alan, Andrew, Mark, Peter R and Trevor took on the task of installing the other side of the support structure, then gradually infilling with decking planks, helped considerably by the fact that these were cut to size before being brought onto the site.

Meanwhile, Becki, Bev, Carol, David, Lyndsey and Maria ventured out onto the boot-sucking mud, taking advantage of the unprecedented access, to continue cutting back the dense wall of overgrown willow which still chokes sections of the ponds. Brash was either used as dry hedging or added to the bonfire heap (there was a lot of it!) and larger branches were stacked ready to be cut into shorter lengths to form habitat for invertebrates and amphibians. As we worked and chatted, David introduced us to the concept of succession, where plant life colonises a pond, accumulates sediment, and eventually fills in the pond and turns it into land. Our extreme and seemingly never-ending willow management at Wood Norton is designed to prevent that from happening – or to delay it at least.

From our unusual vantage point out on the mud, we could look back and see the remnants of the original corduroy path sitting a few feet below the northern boardwalk – not unlike looking at the different strata of rocks in a cliff face, only a bit quicker to come about!