volunteers

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A Big Catch on Glassmill!

In the second Thames21 work party on Glassmill Pond 22nd November, we had quite a haul recovering 3 shopping trollies and 4 traffic cones! Some 8 volunteers braved a sunny but very cold day to carry out more vegetation management, as well as picking up rubbish including even small bits of plastic polluting the pond.

However the biggest items of rubbish were undoubtedly the trollies and cones. The former were well stuck in the silt and required a lot pulling on the ned of a rope, up to four people in one really difficult case. Some intrepid volunteers also waded in and collected up to 500 golf balls from the river bed. We estimate as many still remain to be collected. These have been identified as coming from an upstream golf driving range, and the site owners have been contacted by Thames21, about halting this source of pollution.

Others were heavily engaged in clearing some dead trees and other invasive vegetation. This is necessary in order to encourage suitable vegetation to have space to thrive, and so enhance the local biodiversity.

Much remains to be done, so why not take part? The next work party is scheduled for Sunday 8th December 10am-2pm. To find out more and book a place please click HERE.

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Its All Happening at the Pond

Over the last few days a lot has been happening at Glassmill Pond, Glassmill Lane, BR2 0EL, with two events! The first on 23rd June was part of the Three Rivers Clean Up campaign. Volunteers cleared some 6 bags of rubbish for pond, including many golf balls which had ‘escaped’ from a golf driving range upstream. They also managed to cut back willow tree branches that had fallen into the river channel. If it had not been removed it could have blocked the river with resulting local flooding. At both events we were very pleased to welcome the Mayor of Bromley, who put on some wellies and got stuck in.

Some new flowers were spotted, just a sample of the many plug plants we dug in a few months ago.

And four days later on 27th June Thames21 organised a community event, as part of their London Rivers Week programme. Yet more volunteers turned up. This time the first task was to reposition some large stones, in order to raise water levels next to the pond inlet, thereby making it more possible for fish to migrate further upstream.

They then had a chance to monitor the really small things normally hidden in the river bed, but which are indictors of good water quality. To do this they had to stir the gravel and using a net collect a sample, and study their catch very closely.

By this means they came across loads of tiny immature sticklebacks. Also the larval stage of; olive mayfly, leeches, hoglouse, gammarus, blackfly larvae and some very small worms. All these are potential food of others, including dragonfly larva. Indeed a few adult dragonflies and demoiselles were spotted flying over the pond. This is indicative of the new arrangements having a great impact on improving the biodiversity of the river.

Finally they all pulled together to gather a more unnatural catch, in the form of a shopping trolley and a Lime bike which had been thrown into the pond.

However we left another shopping trolley in place, as it was being used by a Moorhen mother for her nest, along with some eggs, five when this taken earlier by Chris Holly.

A very satisfactory end to these events. We are looking forward to organising more events on this site. To find out more about this site and our exciting plans for the future of this river please go to our Glassmill Pond Restoration project page.