wildlife

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Fishing in Glassmill!

Netting the fish

As part of the refurbishment project, on 21st March the water level in the pond was drastically reduced. Beforehand however a specialist contractor was on site to collect all the fish in the pond, they were recorded then released safely downstream. Altogether some 140 three-spined sticklebacks, 2 small roach and 3 eels, the largest being 79cm long, were collected.

Large eel caught

The water flow was carefully measured. Then with the weir boards removed the water level reduced rapidly at first, exposing more of the silt deposited over many years.

Exposed silt, with river channel bottom

The newly exposed silt now will be allowed time to dry out, before contractors are able to move in to excavate and reuse the silt to recreate a working river channel and a separate pond, that fish, eels etc can thrive in.

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CHG Lake at record low levels

Church House Gardens lake extremely low.
Lake in Church House Gardens today

As a result of the extended period without rain the level of the lake in Church House Gardens is at an extremely low level. This puts the local wildlife in the lake, including the ducks etc under great stress. This fed by a spring as well as surface water, both of which are extremely depleted at present. With pressures on water supplies for other uses is unlikely that this will be replenished in the near future. We will just have to hope that significant rainfall will happen soon, and so gradually resolve this issue.

This situation was not helped by the very low rainfall over the autumn/winter. Paul, one of our members, has been monitoring the lake level since 2012. He reports that it was this low for a prolonged time in 2012, after ”one of the ten most significant droughts of the last 100 years” (Met Office). Paul also mentions that lake levels were also very low for brief periods in 2013 and 2018. So the lake and its wildlife has recovered before, and so we trust that it will do so again this time.

This lack of rainfall is also impacting local river levels e.g. Ravensbourne, with resulting potential pollution problems.

With the impacts of climate change increasingly being felt we desperately need to make our spaces and their environments more resilient.