Our pond projects!

Long before we even knew we would end up here farming, we used to imagine having a pond here.  Ponds can be true hotspots for biodiversity, creating unique habitats that many species can call home. We had a couple of specific places in mind for a pond.  One of these was in a wet corner of a field, where water already runs off the road into a drain in the field and follows that drain straight to the river. We would have seen tadpoles at times in that area, but in traditional farming, these sort of corners would have been encouraged to dry out and add to the grazing area.

Work starting on the small pond

Another spot was in another field, very close to the river.  There is a natural dip in the field.  I presume that many many years ago, it may have been the path the river took.  It was always wet and in Alan’s youth cattle would have had access to the river here.  

Alan in the middle of what will soon be a big pond

Moving on a few years, and due to our interest and enthusiasm for doing all we can to promote water quality.  We were at a couple of talks by Local Authorities Water Programme, LAWPRO.  They are also involved as a partner in the Tirlan Farming for Water initiative.  Through LAWPRO we learned about the importance of slowing the flow of water to the river, and of cleaning the water on the way to the river. 

Slowing the flow: These days there are so many flat surfaces that rainwater just runs straight off, including tarmac, concrete and roofs.  If there is heavy rain all this rainwater arrives in the river quickly, which rapidly raises the river, and is a huge contributory factor in flooding.  If everyone was to do their bit to slow the flow of water, flooding problems could be greatly reduced.  There are many opportunities for this in towns and cities and LAWPRO are working hard on that.  There are also several things that we realised that we could do, to do our part. 

Heavy rain also sweeps the roads clean, anything that may be on the roads, or roofs, will end up in the water bodies. So dust, grit, rubber, oil, all sorts can end up in the watercourses.

Here on our farm, we have always been conscious of doing our part for water quality.  We have all our yards roofed, and water harvesting off them, in place. We would be conscious of the silt etc that would be washed off the lane by the rain, so we have been thinking about what we can do about that, and we got to thinking about our ponds again.

Through our involvement in Tirlan’s Farming for water project, we became aware of the Farming for water, European Innovation Partnership (EIP) .  This is a European funding stream for water quality.  There are different measures that you can implement and apply for funding to do so. Including a wide variety of things like going to, or hosting, information meetings about water quality, to putting in slow the flow measures such as swales, or even ponds.

The first pond that I mentioned is the one we imagined long before we even knew we'd be farming here. The water comes off a small local lane and also from a natural spring and was following a drain around the field margin, and straight to the river. We have dug a small pond in the corner of the field, and the water will now go through our pond allowing sediment to fall out of it.  Once the pond fills, that water will re enter the drain and continue to the river, cleaner that it was, but also there is a delay incurred in this process, which “slows the flow”.

This video shows the small pond, as yet there is no water in it, so we are (im)patiently watching this space!

Our big pond was a much more complex project. There was originally a drain on the edge of the public road.  It collected rainwater from both the public road and the lane that we share with a neighbour.  It entered the river directly at the bridge. We have very clean water at the bridge, but while doing kick samples we have recorded leeches in the water, which would be typical of road run off. So what we have done, is to divert the drain into our field, the water then goes through two sediment tanks, exits into a swale (essentially a drain) and is then brought to a pond. 

John from Murphy Concrete, Billy who did the digger work, and Alan, installing the two tanks which make up the sediment trap for the rainwater coming off the public road

This pond we made as large as the depression already in the field, so it is big.  We also discovered the water table was only slightly under the surface.  This was very exciting for us as it means that the pond should never go dry.  Creating a whole other habitat. 

This pond had water in it immediately as we found the water table just under the surface. This image shows the pond just after completion.

This pond was a bit more work, researching and pricing options, as well as the practical work of digging and moving soil.  It is already proving to be worth it as we watch swallows dipping over the surface for a drink, we also have a heron on the river who makes regular visits to the pond to keep an eye on developments.  It is incredibly exciting to think how it will develop over time. 

We have got a lot of advice from LAWPRO and the NPWS on this pond, and will be seeking more expert advice as the habitat develops.  We are right on a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) which is one reason why we were keen to have NPWS advice. 

I can’t wait to post pictures and blogs about our ponds going forward, but first I may get my head around drawing down our funding from the EIP!  It’s easier to do the outside work, than the computer work!