Thursday 21 January 2010

Pond Life


Today we made some real progress on the new education pond, and by Saturday afternoon you should see some water in it!


The pond was originally dug out for us by Bardon Aggregates but it needs an expensive liner to make it water-tight. We identified a local company in Oundle called Water-Line who use a special liner composed of a fabric sandwich containing Bentonite, which is a volcanic ash that forms a thick clay when you wet it. If the fabric is punctured, the clay quickly closes the gap. Our liner will arrive at 8.00 am tomorrow, so your trusty rangers will be there at 6.30 am to start the pump so that the liner is installed on an almost dry bed.


The liner is being paid for jointly by the Aggregate Levy Fund and The Friends of Paxton Pits Nature Reserve. The pump was kindly loaned to us by Bardon Aggregates.


I'll keep you posted on progress.