23 Feb Bramblefields Nature Reserve Pond – Cambridge
For this project our landscapers were asked to create a pond at Bramblefields Local Nature Reserve to form a new habitat for species such as newts, frogs, dragonflies and damselflies. This work was undertaken on behalf of Cambridge City Council who are continually working to improve Cambridge’s open spaces.
We began by clearing the area so that we could mark out where the pond would be dug. The next step was to start grading the landscape to begin creating a pond area. After digging out the pond we started to arrange spoils around the pond to create habitats for different species.
The pond has been designed for amphibians and reptiles, especially newts. There is already a healthy newt population in a smaller adjacent pond and so the hope is that they will populate the new pond and have a lot more space. Dragonflies are also competing for space in the smaller pond so again the larger pond will offer them a much bigger space to increase numbers in.
In addition to the pond we created two hibernaculum, which consist of piles of logs covered in sand and subsoil. This made perfect conditions for not only newts, frogs, toads and grass snakes to hibernate in, but also created the perfect nesting sites for solitary bees and wasps and other scarce invertebrates.
