Village Duck Pond

As many of you will have noticed, our beloved duck pond is almost empty of water and very likely to dry up in the coming days. The Parish Council have been in contact with numerous environmental and wildlife bodies over the last few days, including the Environment Agencies Fisheries Officer, and you won’t be surprised to hear that we are not the only village losing our water, fish and other wildlife from our pond. Every effort was made to re-fill the pond, however in a drought such as this, it was not possible and had we managed, in all likeliness, it would be dry again by next week.
The fish in the pond were common carp, and with the low oxygen levels now in the water (around 25-30% rather than the normal 100%) and the increasing water temperature they have sadly perished. There would have been a high risk of spreading disease to other fish species had we relocated them to another pond.
Armed with further expert advice, and the fact the pond is predominantly made up of run-off water from the road, we have made the decision to leave the silt at the bottom of the pond, which performs the function of a filter – removing pollutants from the water, and leave the pond to be naturally re-filled by rain and run-off water when the weather decides to change.
For those also concerned about the other pond wildlife including the ducks, newts, moorhens, toads etc. they will find their way to other ponds, of which we know there are many not far from the central village one.
It is likely that with climate change, it will become a seasonal pond from now on, and therefore at this time, we don’t intend to restock it with fish. We hope this brings some reassurance to the village that action has, and is, being taken to look after this village asset.

Barton Parish Council