Disappearing ponds
19th June 2023
Where I live in Battle, only 15 miles away, we had steady rain for several hours yesterday. So this morning I was excited to see how Wilderness Wood had reacted to the change in weather after 2 months of high temperatures without significant rainfall.
At 10 am, on arriving at Wilderness Wood, it looks like the anticipated testing of leaky dams and new ponds is going to be little more than a damp squib. None of the watercourses or leaky dams show much sign of flowing water having passed down them of late.
At the new ponds, last week's mere trickle of water has now ceased entirely, with water levels down several inches in just 6 days. It would seem that although it did rain here, this was quickly swallowed up by the thirsty soil and never made it to recharge the stream or the ponds.
Wading into the lower 'Penstock Pond' in my wellies I estimate there being perhaps 12 to 18 inches of water in it. As I squidge around in the shallows I guess that much of this is actually mud. With 2 or 3 months of hot dry weather ahead I fear the worst for the ponds.
On the plus side there's plenty of invertebrate life in the pond, indicated by lots of spreading ripples as some creature or other breaks the water surface.
A large yellow and black Golden Ringed Dragonfly heaves into view, propelled on its helicopter wings. I suspect she too is eyeing up the pond and considering if it is a viable water body for her babies to spend their childhood in. After a minute of cruising she appears to give it the thumbs down and goes looking elsewhere.
Loads of small gnats and the occasional scorpion fly gather at the waters edge doubtless going through some kind of mating dance, or other reproductive procedure.
Jake has opened up the pond to more sunlight on its south Eastern side by removing a couple of large birch trees, which are too close to the pond and threaten to fill it with leaf litter. This should also help to illuminate the pond better - until about 9am perhaps. However, the main shade after 9am comes from the direction of the adjacent wet woodland to the south.
Our plan is to fell a band of trees which are too close to the pond and then reassess the impact. The trees in question are only 40-50 years old. By contrast some of the coppice stools we crop on a 15 year cycle are over 300 years old. Balancing biodiversity against other environmental concerns is a major conservation challenge.
It is a tough call between letting light in to encourage photosynthesis in the pond, but then letting the radiant heat of the sun dry the pond out. Which do we favour - water for life, or sun for life?
The wet woodland below the ponds is devoid of running or even standing water. However, the shade from the trees here has so far ensured the soil remains damp.
Walking on down to Streamside, the lowest part of the wood, the large pond created by the construction of the leaky dam has as good as gone. Just a few Robinson Crusoe footprints in the still moist mud indicate where the pond once existed. It'll be back after the autumn and winter rains, but many pond creatures require year round water. The stream, where it leaves the wood in the direction of the Tickeridge Stream, has dried up completely. Come the winter things will change completely, but for now the Wilderness Stream exists in name only.
A school group is busy exploring their woodland environment. They quite obviously love getting out of the classroom and into the woods. This action enables children to address what is labelled environmental deficit disorder - where children are no longer exposed to the natural world we are all part of (Last Child in the Woods - Richard Louve).
Of course this new generation will only remember what they experienced first hand. It is sobering to think of them as grandparents one day. Will their grandchildren just roll their eyes in disbelief when grandad tells them what the natural world was like in the summer of 2023?
Shifting baseline syndrome (Ian McHarg) describes this condition, whereby we measure the baseline of environmental change, which itself changes with each generation's changed childhood experience. Their childhood baseline is quite different from mine of 60 years ago.
