Preparing Phase II of pond project
Environmental association to begin next phase of ice pond restoration this summer
Tracy Brown says vegetation is choking off the waterway at the old Summerside ice pond. Even when water was in the pond, one could walk across it on the cattail plants and not get your feet wet, the executive director of the Bedeque Bay Environmental Management Association explained recently.
“There’s no sense putting a pond back in with all the vegetation there because there would be no habitat for the fish.”
The association is hoping this spring isn’t too wet because they want to dry out the basin so they can get more out by excavating the land, Brown said. “We want to get rid of the cattails and the more they stay high and dry, the easier it is for them to die off.”
Last fall, phase one of the ice pond restoration project wrapped up when the group removed the old fish ladder, dam structure and opened up the waterway to allow the pond to drain and flush out the area over the winter.
They needed to find the original channel of the stream and see where the springs were because there are so many in the pond and they will have to work around them.
The stream has now dug down its bed and redefined the original streambed, Brown said.
“It will give us an idea of what the substrate beneath of the pond is, which will let us know exactly how much excavation we’re going to have to do.”
It’s not going to be as deep as it originally was, Brown said.
“There’s no way to afford that kind of excavation.”
Once that’s completed, building the fish ladder will take about a week. It will push the pond back about 20 feet to get a gradual slope.
“If you have too high of a slope, the fish can’t get up and down the ladder.”
The excavation will start in August and the ladder will go in at the end of the month. In September, the final cells will be installed into the pond and when that’s done, the workers will close everything up, and let the pond refill itself while doing some excavation and landscaping around the area.
“By October, it’ll be back to a pond with a bridge over the top of it and a green space around it.”
In the process of construction, they will be stripping plants around the pond.
The Summerside Scouts are going to work with the association on some wildlife enhancement for the area and placing logs for the fish habitat to counteract the excavation. They will plant some native trees, pollinated plants, build benches for people to enjoy the landscape and establish a nature trail around the pond. “We want to make it a nice community spot again.”