Shooters Hill Woodland Working Party

8th March 2025

Joint Ponding Digging Event with Froglife

What a fabulous turn-out we had for our Joint Pond-Digging Event with members of the charity Froglife.

Over 30 people attended – the largest group of volunteers Froglife have worked with - so a huge thank you to all who joined in and made the event such a success.

With this great effort from volunteers, our aim to retain more water within the woodlands has made a brilliant start. We added 1 new small pond and restored 1 rainwater pond in Oxleas Wood, and created 2 new ponds in Jack Wood.

And…we were delighted to see a pond-skater had already arrived at one of the new ponds in Jack Wood before we left – what is more rewarding than that!

Thanks again for all your support.

This area is at the bottom of a seasonal stream, in Jack Wood, just before the water disappears into a culvert.

Overhanging foliage was removed to allow light to penetrate the pond and also to prevent leaf litter filling up the pond.

Volunteers dug out mud and rotted down leaf litter.

As you can see, it was hard, slippery work digging in the clay and required teamwork.

Part of the team at work at work at the bottom of Jack Wood.

A well-deserved break while standing in the sludge.

The end result is a pond of a fair size providing water for wildlife beside the lower path in Jack Wood. A hibernaculum has been built from tree branches, mud, leaf litter etc. This will provide a refuge for amphibians, reptiles and invertebrates.

TClay soil was removed and banked up on the sides. The pond bottom is at different levels and ‘ledges’ are left around the edges. This will help amphibians to move from the water.

This shows a new pond being created higher up the seasonal stream in Jack Wood. In the background, Rose from Froglife is helping clear trees and shrubs from the area surrounding the pond. They have been used, along with mud, leaf litter etc to create a hibernaculum and a small, leaky dam.

The Friends volunteers and Froglife crew admiring the developing pond.

Team work!

This clay ledge is gradually being dug away. It was very ‘heavy’ soil and very slippery.

The finished pond in Jack Wood is holding the water well and slowing the flow downhill which feeds the first pond.

This is a rainwater pond in Oxleas Wood. It was full of rotted down leaf litter, dead-wood, etc. It was very hard work both removing the silt and getting it up the sides of the pond.

The finished pond.

The finished pond, with a hibernaculum built to provide refuge for frogs and amphibians.

This is a new pond created in an area at the bottom of the bluebell wood in Oxleas Wood. The area is at the bottom of a hill and is often boggy.

Trees were removed which were overhanging, blocking light and dropping foliage. Nothing is wasted - a fence now surrounds this deeper pond, to provide habitat but also for safety.