Today was a great day at North Pond. Now that the major work in the Pond is complete, we are excited to begin to restore the habitat for the hundreds of plants and animals that call the Pond home. The project team met first thing today to walk the Pond to identify locations and placements of 30 snags to provide habitat, shelter and basking for birds, turtles, and other animals. Prior to the beginning of the restoration this spring we counted 30 previously downed or dead trees serving as snags; our goal is to replace every one of them (and then some). During the walk our team was pleased to see six juvenile black crowned night herons, a great blue heron, native frogs, and turtles basking on the first of the habitat snags added just last week. We left the pond enroute to meetings or other work with wide smiles, inspired by the abundance of nature we’re helping to preserve and protect at North Pond.
North of the pond, drainage and grading work is complete, with fine-grading and seeding to follow. We are on track to reopen this area in mid-September, and we know the many park visitors who frequent it are as anxious and excited as are we. Until then: please respect the construction fencing for your own protection as this area remains an active construction site and is closed to public access.
Drainage work on the west and east sides of the pond will wrap up today, with sewer improvements on the south end beginning today and running through next week. A new path near the Sunshine Playscape with additional lighting upgrades for this area is also underway and will be completed in the next week to ten days.
As Labor Day nears, we are on track for most of the major pond and park work to be completed, with seeding and planting of the shoreline beginning later this month through late September. To enhance visitors’ experience of the Pond, we plan to install new limestone outcroppings that will provide new vantage points of the Pond, along with new fencing to protect the Pond’s restored natural areas.
As the weekend approaches, I hope you get an opportunity to visit North Pond so that you can experience some of the beauty and wonder referenced above. If you can’t make it in person, be sure to check out our social media channels for our North Pond video series that has been tracking the restoration this summer. For questions or to learn more check out our North Pond project page.
