Lower Avon Pond Reconnection
Before works: The floodplain pond was very overgrown and only sustained water for a few months of the year.
Mid works: The pond was excavated to varying depths and contours to provide a variety of riparian habitats.
This project was delivered in conjunction with The Wessex Chalk Streams Trust and the Avon Roach project, and aims to provide a backwater refuge for juvenile course fish species. The area is a SSSI and is important for its population of wading birds. This backwater with its sloping margins will not only provide a refuge for fish but it will also support feeding areas for species such as Lapwing, Redshank, and Snipe.
What did we do?
Excavated a large volume of vegetation and topsoil, creating varying pond depths, marginal shelves and different riparian zones.
Introduced large and course woody debris into areas of the pond for invertebrates and for fish cover from predators.
Laser levelled, excavated and re-profiled a dredged river bank to re-connect the main channel to the newly excavated and profiled pond.
Spread topsoil and created a low level bund within the floodplain.
What were the outcomes?
The newly connected pond will now provide a sanctuary to a variety of aquatic life forms including course fish, wading birds and wild fowl, amphibians, invertebrates and a multitude of riparian plant species.
The Re-connection of the pond to the main Mill Leat will ensure that the pond will always have a good body of water in, and will prevent it from being a flood plain seasonal pond, that are prone to drying out during certain times of the year.
The Pond moments before being connected to the main channel
The newly created pond looking downstream from the confluence