Burley Aquatic Developments

The Problem: -

The clients had tried couple of times themselves without success to build two duck flight ponds in areas of land where the substrate was heavy with clay and always damp. However the ponds they dug would not hold water in the summer and autumn months. The flight ponds were to be used to attract wild duck for the occasional shoot but the clients also wanted them to develop into natural ponds that would benefit nature and wildlife in general particularly as no other ponds or open water-body exists in the near vicinity.

Solution: -

Specially adapted bentonite clay sandwiched between two heavy duty geo-textile liners was chosen for the impermeable liner. The old ponds were re-excavated to a slightly deeper level and the bentonite liners laid, overlapped and sealed. Then the islands are re-constructed on top of the bentonite liner. The ponds filled quickly with water and maintain their water levels very well. Both flight ponds have been planted to design with native aquatic marginal plants and protected with steel weld-mesh wire to protect them from waterfowl. The ponds are a huge success with wild duck but also they are now regularly visited by other local wildlife such as deer, badgers and foxes seeking water and bats in the evenings seeking winged food produced by the ponds developing marginal foliage.