Fleet Pond Customer Needs Consultation

Fleet Pond Customer Needs Consultation

UPDATE as of 23^rd November 2012

The Fleet Pond Customer Needs Report has been brought together by the steering group of the Environment Agency, Fleet Pond Society, Hart District Council, and Natural England.

We want you to tell us what would make your visit to Fleet Pond more enjoyable and encourage those who have not yet visited the pond to enjoy their visit and wish to return.  This is your opportunity to tell us what you like about Fleet Pond and suggest how it might be improved.

To date the steering group has engaged an independent researcher and the resulting documents are available for consultation from 7^th December at:

www.hart.gov.uk

Hard copies will be available to the public in the Fleet Library and the Civic Offices in Fleet from 7^th December.  The consultation will take place from 7^th December 2012 to 20^th January 2013.

We will analyse all responses and create a visitor strategy for Fleet Pond Nature Reserve covering the next few years.

We are inviting a variety of stakeholders and groups as well as individual members of the public to review the document and respond with their comments.  So please take the time to read the document; you can comment on any aspect of it.  We would be grateful if you could highlight the paragraph or page that you are referring to in order for us to see your comments in context.

You can respond to the consultation process by emailing:

countryside@hart.gov.uk

or alternatively you can post your responses to:

Fleet Pond Visitor Strategy Consultation

Leisure and Environmental Promotion

Civic Offices, Fleet

Hampshire, GU51 4AE

Essential Dredging Work Beginning at Brookly Bay

The next stage in the Fleet Pond Restoration Project involves dredging the area around Brookly Bay.  This essential work is necessary as the area is heavily laden with silt mainly consisting of rotting leaves.

We would like to notify residents in the area closest to Brookly Bay, that once the work starts, if the wind is in your direction, you may notice an unpleasant smell.  Please note this odour is not harmful, just unpleasant.  There is a possibility the smell may persist for a few months after the work is completed.

Hart District Council does apologise for any inconvenience this essential work may cause. For more information please email the Countryside Rangers at countryside@hart.gov.uk or phone 01252 623443.

Fleet Pond’s Common Terns Benefit from Clearwater Campaign Funds

The Common Tern is the beneficiary of recent work carried out on one of the new islands in the middle of Fleet Pond.  Volunteers from the Fleet Pond Society worked together with Hart Countryside Rangers to cover the central island with gravel paid for with funds raised through the Society’s ‘Clearwater Campaign’.

Common Terns like to nest in bare scrapes on flat, poorly vegetated islands. This makes the eggs and young vulnerable to predation by mammals such as rats and mink as well as large birds including gulls, owls and herons. It is hoped that their speckled eggs will be well camouflaged against the gravel, with protection for the chicks provided by the low level roofing tile hideaways.  Fencing has been placed round the island to stop mink accessing it.

Fleet Pond Ranger, Louise Greenwood stated her hopes for the newly covered island: ‘In the summer of 2012 seven pairs of Terns nested on this new island but unfortunately none of them fledged as they were predated. By providing this gravel topping and the hideaways we hope that next year we will have a new colony of Terns on Fleet Pond.’

Colin Gray of Fleet Pond Society said: ‘We would like to thank the company, W M Longreach for kindly transporting the gravel over to the island for us. It is a very exciting project to have spent some campaign funds on.  In fact we named the island, ‘Clearwater’ and if you look closely you might be able to see the flag we planted with the ‘Clearwater Campaign’ logo on.’

Hi all

Millers Ark have taken the two cows, Melody & Magnolia, off of Woodlane Heath at Fleet Pond this afternoon. So that's it for our conservation grazing this year.

A big thanks to everyone who has been a looker this year on all our sites, hope you can help again next year, we will be in touch, have a great Christmas.

Frog on fleet pond

Weeding birch saplings on the dry Heath

Today the countryside rangers Louise and Rachel are on fleet pond with the Hampshire conservation volunteers weeding the birch saplings on the railway wood (by boathouse corner) This is a really important job as the birch spreads over the Heath enriching the soil and shading out the heather. By clearing the birch saplings we give the heather the best chance to recolonise.

Also on the pond the fleet pond society are working alongside the fleet lions to clear the scrub on the old de havillon launch site

The access track and jetty is nearly complete

Along with the new access track from the main car park to boathouse corner
we have also installed a new jetty at boathouse corner.

Further stages of dredging involve the silt being removed from the pond in
dumper trucks and transported to a dewatering site.

The jetty will allow the diggers to easily drive on and off of the pontoons
and provide a great spot to view the pond, feed the birds and fish from.

The new access track is permanent and will allow access for dredging in the future when maintenance works are needed.

Sorry for any inconvenience caused for more information please contact
countryside@hart.gov.uk or phone 01252 623443

Water Rail on Fleet Pond

The Water Rail on Fleet Pond have had a great year. While walking past the North East marsh (between Boat house Corner and Coldstream Marsh) you will be able to often hear the water rails calling to each other. They have a very distinctive call which is often explained as a squealing pig. Next time you are down by the pond have a listen to one of the most elusive birds on the pond. 

Water rails are related to Moor hens in the rail family and have large feet and long bills for catching small fish and invertebrates in the water. The are very secretive birds and will prefer to scuttle off through a dense reedbed than fly.

See you around the Pond

Louise Greenwood
Fleet Pond Countryside Ranger
Hart District Council

New track at Fleet Pond

A new track is currently being fitted at Fleet Pond from the main car park off cove road to Boat House Corner. This track is integral to the next phase of works to allow silt to be extracted from the Pond.

There will heavy machinery in the area over the next month. Please follow any warning signs and instructions, sorry for any inconvenience caused. 

Thank you for your cooperation.

An eerie Halloween walk around Fleet Pond

The Halloween walks around Fleet Pond on Tuesday night was a great success!  We had a great turn out with 25 people in assorted costumes including a skeleton, a pirate and a ghost.  We started off in the main car park off cove round and walked down to boathouse corner with each person holding a green glow stick it created an eerie trail.

At boathouse corner we listened to an interesting story about a recent ghost siting and then played pumpkin bowling which involved knocking down corn on the cob pins with a pumpkin.

We walked around the pond which is very scary at night time listening to the creatures that come out at night.  While walking around we heard the tale of the young lady who fell in the pond and played several other games including...

The Monster Mash (halloween version of musical statues)
Musical Pumpkins (halloween version of musical chairs)
Witch hunt (a scavenger hunt for witch cut outs)

It was a great day for everyone.  We can't wait until next halloween, where we are going to do pumpkin carving :)

Our next activity is our Christmas Wreath Making Workshops which are on Saturday 8th December and Sunday 9th December 10am - 12pm, 2pm - 4pm and 6pm - 8pm

To find out more information and to book your place please visit www.threesixfive.org.uk/countryside/guided-walks

Checking the health of the pond

Every 2 weeks a member of johns associates can be seen on a boat around fleet pond checking the levels of oxygen and the clarity of the water during the works this information can then help us make decisions on whether the turgidity curtain (the long blue sausage across the lake) needs to be moved. The curtain stops any of the silts that are stirred up during the dredging moving across the lake . There is another turbid out curtain on the outflow this stops any silt going out of the pond and into the little pond outside the heron on the lake pub.

By monitoring the oxygen and clarity we can also look at the effects of the dredging on the fish. Luckily the results so far are showing the sediment is settling out quickly during the works and the works have already created some clear water.

Grass snake on fleet pond

All our reptiles are now getting ready for hibernation over the winter we spotted this one outside the rangers station probably looking for a nice warm place to spend the winter

Dwarf gorse in flower at Hazeley Heath

The dwarf gorse at Hazeley Heath is in full flower at the moment and it looks great. Dwarf gorse is quite rare but we are fortunate enough to have a lot at Hazeley.

Redpolls at fleet pond

Lesser redpolls and siskins can be seen and heard in large numbers around fleet pond at the moment. They are small finches that mainly breed in Scandinavia and spend the winter in the UK feeding on alder catkins. Due to a poor year there is a lot less food for the birds in Scandinavia this year so the birds have come over to the uk in large numbers and a lot earlier. So while walking around the pond have a look out for large flocks of finches feeding on the alder.

Marsh and reedbed restoration

While walking around Fleet pond you will see that we have been carrying out not only restoration of the pond with dredgers but also in collaboration with the fleet pond society and many volunteer groups we've been clearing the scrub and reeds in hemalite reedbed (by the train station) and clearing scrub in Coldstream marsh ( near the picnic area).

This scrub and reed clearance is really important for the Wildlife at fleet pond. Reedbeds are a successional habitat and if left unmanaged they will scrub over the trees will dry out the reedbed, drop leaves which will compost and enrich the ground. Eventually the reedbed will be completely lost and replaced by poor quality woodland.

However we are clearing the encroaching scrub and removing it from the site this will allow the reeds to grow back strong healthy and dense this provides a great habitat for lots of wildlife including reed warblers

Dredging at Fleet Pond is in full swing

The dredging is going really well W M Longreach (contractors) have created 6 new islands already!

Fleet Pond Autumn Bird Walk - A Great Success!!!

We had a great turn out on Saturday for a stroll around Fleet pond looking out for our feathered friends. We started off the walk with a ringing demonstration by our local bird ringer Gary Clewley, who explained why ringing is important and we got to see 2 great tits (Parus major) close up.
Next we wandered over to sandy bay looking at birds along the way, we had a great view of a kingfisher which perched on heron island and caught a fish for everyone to see.
We saw lots of birds along the way including treecreeper, nuthatch, teal, siskin and chiffchaffs. We finished off the walk by visiting Gary again and he had an adult male siskin which was great to see up close as not everyone had good views previously.
Siskin (photo below) are winter visitors and often seen on the alder catkins around the pond.

For more information about our future guided walks please visit our website
www.threesixfive.org.uk/countryside/guided-walks

Diggers Back at Fleet Pond

DIGGERS were craned into Fleet Pond on Saturday ready to begin the second phase of dredging in the Fleet Pond restoration project. They are now manoeuvring around the pond on pontoons –continuing to make it deeper and creating new islands using the resulting silt. By the end of this year a good dent should have been made into the estimated quarter of a million tonnes of silt that needs to be moved.

Last Spring the diggers removed silt and formed central islands thus creating a windbreak and reducing wave action across the lake. This stirs up the silt and makes the water murky so that plants cannot grow on the lake bed. The dredging stopped on April 1 to avoid disturbance to breeding birds. This autumn the dredgers will deepen areas around the edge of the lake while further islands will create calmer backwaters leading to areas of clear water in which plants can grow.

More dredging will be needed in future and Hart District Council is working hard to secure funding to continue the restoration. The project run by the council has raised funds through Natural England’s Higher Level Stewardship grant of £173,000 and Water Framework Directive (£142,000). There has also been Environment Agency WFD grants of £100,000 and a similar amount from developers’ contributions.

Fleet Pond Society, through its ‘Clearwater Campaign’, promotes community awareness of the situation at the pond and raises voluntary funding towards projects not contained in the main restoration project.

Cllr Sara Kinnell, Hart’s Cabinet Member for Leisure and Environmental Promotion, commented: “We’d like to thank everyone involved. This year is a giant step towards reaching our goals.”

For more information and updates on how the project is going and what species are visiting the islands see the Hart Countryside Blog – www.hartranger.blogspot.com, ring 01252 623443 or email countryside@hart.gov.uk

Let go on a Bat Hunt

We're going on a bat hunt in the countryside service ! Join us on a walk around Elvetham Heath on Saturday 1st September to see the exciting creatures that use the reserve after dark.   Lets see how many species of bats use the reserve and learn about their interesting lifestyles.  

There is also a bat walk at Fleet Pond on Friday 7th September.  Where hopefully we can see a different range of species that rely on the pond.  While we are walking we will also be on the look out for other exciting creatures that use the reserve such as moths and owls.

For more information about the walks please visit our website www.threesixfive.org.uk/countryside where you can also book our guided walks.  Spaces are limited so booking is essential so please either book online, phone us on 01252 623443 or email countyrside@hart.gov.uk to reserve your space.  Walks are charged at £2.50 per adult and £1.50 per child which goes towards management of the sites.

Hart Residents Enjoy Wild Night at Hazeley Heath

On Saturday 28th of July at Hazeley Heath the countryside rangers had great fun running the Life Nocturnal walk. Nineteen brave members of the public joined us to look for bats, Nightjars, owls and moths on this heathland nature reserve.

With help from some moth experts we ran a successful moth trap, capturing some interesting species.  We heard male and female Tawny Owl, but unfortunately didn’t hear any churring Nightjar. This cryptic nocturnal bird loves warm, still nights and it may have been a little chilly for them even though we have two breeding pairs in the southern section that we heard churring only the night before!

A brilliantly camouflaged Nightjar on Hazeley Heath - photo courtesy of James Herd

                                            

We did pick up some echolocating bats however using our bat detectors; hand held devises that pick up the high frequency calls of these flying mammals as they hunt for insects. Pipistrelle, Brown Long-eared and Noctule were all heard as we wondered through Hazeley Heath in the dark.

For more bat walks, as well as more Hart Countryside Services walks and events please go to www.threesixfive.org.uk/countryside/guided-walks.

Dartford Warbler @ Fleet Pond

While carrying out ringing at Fleet Pond today we caught a Juvenile (3J) Dartford Warbler in the North East Marsh.  Only 8 juvenile Dartford warblers were ringed last year in the country. It would be interesting to know where the nest was (Fleet Pond/Bramshill?)

This is probably the first Dartford Warbler to be recorded around Fleet Pond!
This small warbler is resident in the UK and has s declined in numbers quite a lot in the past few years due to the harsh winters . Its population crashed to only a few pairs in the 1960s. It will perch on top of a gorse stem to sing.  A ditinguishing feature is the bright red eye ring and it has a long tail.

Hi,  The Forester Moths are out on Odiham Common ! Friday afternoon I found five males in three of the southern meadows walking from the underpass to Colt Hill Wharf towards Bagwell lane, to the east of London road.

The Ragged Robin is very weather beaten but some moths were on it near Bagwell lane and others were on Knap weed, which is just coming into flower. If you haven't seen one before Forester moths are day flying metallic green / blue moths. This is only one of two sites in Hampshire where they occur and they are brilliant to look at.

The Wildflowers of Elvetham Heath

Ranger Duke is doing a wildflower walk around Elvetham Heath on Saturday 19th May.  Email countryside@hart.gov.uk or phone 01252 623443 to book your place.


If you'd like to join our mailing group and receive emails about events and guided walks happening in the Hart area Please email us on countryside@hart.gov.uk

Countryside Walks with a sporting theme twist!

The Countryside walks with a sporting theme twist were a great success!  Despite the weather many people turned out out the 5 walks during April to the various Hart Countryside sites.

Over 150 people came to Fleet Pond Local Nature Reserve on Easter Saturday for a fun Easter event hosted by the Hart Countryside Service rangers.  It was a great family day out following the self guided nature trail to find the trivia boards, answer the sporting and nature themed questions before being given an Easter egg.

Louise Greenwood, Hart Countryside Ranger says, “It was a great day and brilliant to see so many people of all ages enjoying Fleet Pond”. The Rangers also set up a viewing telescope so anyone on the day could see the nesting herons on Heron Island. It was a wonderful experience for everyone there to see our heron colony on this beautiful nature reserve.

Check out our events calendar on www.threesixfive.org.uk for details of many more celebrating in 2012 events!

Fleet Pond Easter Trail on Saturday 7th March

Just a reminder the Fleet Pond Easter Nature Trail is on Saturday 7th April.  Drop in any time between 10am - 2pm (last walk starts at 2pm.  Meet us in the Fleet Pond Picnic area (this will be signposted from the main Fleet Pond Car park)

£2 per Quiz pack - take part in the Easter trail quiz and receive a Cadburys Easter Egg.

The new islands are providing a great habitat for wildlife already

Wading Birds have found their way to the newly created islands at Fleet Pond

3 Lapwing have been seen using the islands for the past few weeks.  The islands are regularly littered with a variety of birds including Herons, Swans and Geese.

On Sunday we were very lucky to spot a Dunlin feeding on one of the new islands.  They are a wading bird and use their beak to prod the soft mud and find tasty invertebrates such as worms.

5 islands created so far on Fleet Pond

The Fleet Pond Restoration Project is going really well! We are coming to the end of the first phase with works starting on the 5th island this week.

So far the diggers have deepened the centre of the lake and used the sediment (mainly sand and clay) to create central islands. These central islands will create a windbreak, in order to reduce the wave action across the lake which stirs up the silt and makes the water murky. This “turbidity” prevents light from reaching the lake bed, so plants can’t grow.

The dredging equipment is leaving Fleet Pond on 31st March. They will return in August to continue the Fleet Pond Restoration Project

The dredging must stop during this period to avoid disturbance to the nesting birds and infringement of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

The Fleet Pond Restoration Project has only been possible with the funding from our partners. Hart District Council has raised funds through Natural England’s Higher Level Stewardship grant of £173,000 & their Water Framework Directive (WFD) of
£142,000; Environment Agency WFD Grants of £100,000 as well as funding approximately £100,000 through developers contributions.

For more information about the Fleet Pond Restoration Project Email Countryside@hart.gov.uk

BBC South Today interviews at Fleet Pond

This morning Colin Gray (Chairman of the Fleet Pond Society) and myself were interviewed by BBC South Today about the dredging at Fleet Pond. The interview will be broadcast at lunchtime today and again at 6.30pm tonight.

See you around the pond

Louise Greenwood

Fleet Pond Countryside Ranger

The broadcast is available to watch on BBC Iplayer - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01cmgwb/South_Today_01_03_2012/

Crane on Fleet Pond

A large mechanical crane (not the bird) was seen on Fleet Pond on Saturday. In order to dredge the lake pontoons must be used so enable the excavators to access the whole lake and dredge the hard to reach areas. Dredging can be done in 2 ways from the bank using a long reaching excavator or from floating pontoons. At Fleet Pond dredging from the bank side is not an option as this would involve tracking the excavator over several important and rare habitats.

The pontoons were craned over into the lake from the Fleet Train Station

car park in several pieces and then fixed together expertly by the dredging company. In addition a tugboat was craned onto the lake, this is very important as it is used to move the pontoons and excavators around the lake. Once this was done finally the excavator was craned on top of the newly completed pontoon.

The sun comes out for the large excavator!

Today was a very warm welcome to the arrival of a 20 tonne excavator to Fleet Pond. It was delivered on a low loading lorry and then expertly manoeuvred through the Fleet Pond car park height barrier (as shown in picture).

The excavator has a very long reach on it which is perfect for dredging/digging up the silt from the bottom of the pond. We also had a large de

livery of wooden stakes, these will be used to reinforce the new island sides which will support the recycled silt (mainly sand).

Today we had a great sighting of a Red Admiral butterfly which sat in the car park to bask in the sunlight, which enabled

me to get quite close and take some nice photos. This is the first

butterfly I've seen so far this year! Have you seen any while about the pond?

Looking forward to seeing you around the pond

Louise Greenwood

Fleet Pond Countryside Ranger

The Dredging begins!

This morning some of the dredging equipment arrived at Fleet pond.

Over the years, the ecological and physical condition of Fleet Pond has declined due to the build up of silt in the lake brought in from the Gelvert and Brookley Streams. The build up of silt is causing key habitats to deteriorate and the lake is now in an unfavourable and declining status. The Fleet Pond Restoration Project aims to recreate lost habitat and improve biodiversity value within the lake.

The dredging is going to start from Sandy Bay to deepen the lake around this area, the dredged lake sediment (largely sand) will be re-used to create a sequence of islands in and around the lake shore.

The new islands will not fully enclose the edge of the lake area. Gaps will be left between the islands to enable water to flow freely, to provide wildlife and rowing boat access, and to keep valuable views across the lake.

The islands will provide sheltered marginal areas which will provide positive benefits for a range of valued species, including the recovery of the lake’s plant and insect life for which it was renowned.

For Heath and Safety reasons we have had to temporarily close off the waters edge of Sandy Bay, but the benches are still accessable. Why not take a seat when your next down at Sandy Bay and see whats going on?

See you around the Pond

Louise Greenwood
Fleet Pond Countryside Ranger

Bird Boxes are not just used by Birds!

At the weekend I went out to survey the Bird boxes around the pond and was accompanied by Richard who maintains some of the boxes.

While cleaning out the nest boxes as the weekend we discovered a family of Wood Mice using the box. If you clean out your nest boxes during the Autumn and put some woodshavings in the bottom, it is sometimes used by birds as a winter roost or small mammals may use it to hibernate in.

Cleaning out bird boxes during the winter period is important as the nests of most birds harbour fleas and other parasites. It is recommended to remove the old nests in the Autumn once the box is not in use. Avoid inspecting nest boxes in use. Only open it up if you've got appropriate skills and experience and are taking part in a monitoring project, such as the BTO's Nest Recording Scheme.

Brand New Bridges at Phoenix Green Common

If you go along to Phoenix Green Common near Dilly Lane in Hartley Wintney you’ll find three new bridges in the woods.

These new structures have been put in over ditches in the woodland to make the pathways safer and more user friendly.

Two of the old bridges have been taken out over shallow ditches and replaced with culverts which are safe and easy to maintain, and over one of the deepest ditches on the Common a proper bridge has been put in place with strong Oak sleepers and wooden hand rails. The Oak sleepers used are strong and sturdy and should last for many years to come, but they also stay in keeping within the woodland setting.

The new bridge is also wider than the previous one, meaning we have better access when we are doing any traditional woodland management such as coppicing or haloing Phoenix Green’s beautiful old Oak tree's.

Three more bridges are due to go in on the opposite side of the A30, in the woodland off Grange Lane. The old structures will be removed and better, safer bridges will be going in. So look out for these new editions to the Common in March.

Elvetham Heath Management Works 2012

Habitat Management winter 2011/2012

HEATHLAND MANAGEMENT

will be undertaken to help restore the valuable Heathland habitat we have at the nature reserve, we will be clearing several areas of scrub from the site. The removal of mainly birch will prevent this scrub from out-competing heather and other Heathland plants.

We will be carry

ing out turf scrapes with machinery. A thick layer of organic matter has been laid

down mainly from Pine needles and other leaf matter. This prevents the Heathland plants from regenerating.

It is therefore essential to remove this layer of organic matter to expose the old seed-bank of plants such as heather. Heather seeds can survive for more than 80 years in the soil and can quickly germinate and re-establish themselves once exposed to favourable

conditions. These areas once removed will produce a connected arrangement by providing a corridor for which flying invertebrates especially, can migrate from one area to the next and therefore increasing their distribution.

Also swathes along the edge of paths and through the heath, which is part of our Heathland wildfire manage

ment, will hopefully

minimise the impact of wildfires if one was to happen and prevent a total loss off wildlife, these buffers also encourage grassland species to flourish, increasing biodiversity.

These works will be concluded before the end of March, Prior to germination of the

seed bank, nesting Birds and the cattle arriving around mid April – end of May.

Duke Banfield - Elvetham Heath Ranger

Fleet Pond Car Park

Over the winter works have been carried out in partnership with Basingstoke & Dean to tackle Fleet Pond car park. The car park is a major area for fly tipping and anti-social behaviour in the local area so the hedgerows were flailed to increase visibility. Another benefit in reducing their height is that they will bush up come the spring, offering better nesting for a variety of birds, such as Robin, Chaffinch and Blackbird.

By clearing the scrub and gorse from the centre of the islands we hope to encourage the heather to grow more vigorously, returning the area to heathland to match the surrounding dry heath and to encourage heathland species. The islands will be managed by mowing to maintain this heathland to keep the heather and grass short and prevent scrub from taking over again. Hopefully come the spring there should be a bloom of colour as dormant and repressed plants take advantage of the new increase in light.