Rewilding Queensmere

Supported by the Mayor of London, in partnership with London Wildlife Trust

 

Creating a healthy habitat for wildlife and an attractive haven for visitors

Queensmere (or Queen’s Mere), one of the Commons’ largest ponds, was built to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887 and was a popular bathing and boating spot until a few decades ago. Nowadays it’s a much-loved walking destination for people who come to enjoy watching the birdlife.

However, the man-made concrete-banked pond has, in recent years declined into a poor ecological condition, suffering from severe silt build-up, impacting the water quality; a dominant tree canopy causing leaf litter and excess shade, with little marginal planting and no shelter for wildlife on its concrete banks.

In 2024, Wimbledon and Putney Commons Conservators embarked on an ambitious project to transform Queensmere into a thriving space for nature: to improve the pond, increase its biodiversity and restore it back to being the Commons’ jewel in the crown.

The project:

• Thinning the surrounding woodland to reduce leaf litter in the pond, reduce shade canopy and increase light and airflow to the pond, improving its biodiversity.  
• Removing significant silt deposits from the pond and using the excess to relandscape the concrete banks and to create a new island habitat for wildfowl.
• Planting a new 120 sq m reedbed habitat towards the inlet of the pond to help filter the water and catch silt and pollutants.
• Constructing a silt trap ‘lagoon’ to catch sediment before it reaches the pond.
• Installing a new viewing deck to provide access to the water and views over the pond and a new dog ramp to allow dogs to enter the pond without disturbing the vegetation.

With generous funding from the Rewild London Fund, supported by the Mayor of London in partnership with London Wildlife Trust, the WPCC team and a specialist contractor have been working on the transformation since last Autumn and we are now on the home straight, with completion scheduled for late Spring/early Summer.

 

Work in Progress: Restoration Timeline

April 2025

The project is scheduled for completion mid-month, with commemorative benches to be installed in the summer.

Fixed-point photography posts will be installed so photographs can be taken from the same point over an extended period of time. These can then be compared to help record visual changes to the pond, both long term as it becomes more established and short term by monitoring seasonal change throughout a year, complementing formal monitoring and enabling visitors to contribute to citizen science.

 

March 2025

We are nearing the finish line! The contractors are planting the reedbed and banks, installing screens around the outflow, while a new viewing deck for visitors will shortly be positioned over the water’s edge.

 

February 2025

The revetements were completed and surrounded by a protective fence and a new feature island was constructed in the pond as a means of utilising excess silt and to provide a further habitat for wildfowl.

The reedbed was created as a defined area of 120sqm, with a bank at the inlet side separating it from the newly formed silt trap/amphibian bank.

At the outlet end, a dog ramp has been installed, edged with logs, allowing dogs entry into the water without disturbing the surrounding plant life.

 

January 2025

Following the Christmas break, Aquamaintain returned to the Commons in January and continued draining the pond and excavating of silt, of which a greater quantity was discovered than anticipated. The reed bed foundation was laid and wooden revetments were constructed to relandscape both sides of the pond.  

These hardwood hazel revetments were backfilled with excess silt and covered with protective matting which will be planted. The new banks were edged with coir rolls pre-seeded with a Natural England-approved mix of native grasses and wildflowers.

 

December 2024

Further holly thinning was carried out close to the edge of Queensmere to benefit the regeneration of trees and woodland flora and fauna; make the woodland more accessible to Commons visitors; enhance the surrounding view of Queensmere and allow subsequent tree safety work to be carried out by the WPCC team.

The contractors arrived on site to begin the restoration, with the first task to start draining Queensmere with electro pumps to allow assessment of the pond’s condition, quantity of silt etc.

The water was mostly drained out of the pond, with the resident fishstock (pike, tench and perch) rehomed by Aquamaintain to an alternative location.

While finishing the initial pump down of water starting the silt excavation, Aquamaintain discovered the outline of a walled bathing area, separated from the main body of the pond.

 

November 2024

Initial tree management work was carried out by WPCC staff and an external forestry contractor. The surrounding woodland was thinned, with invasive holly removed, hazel coppicing and the bankside trees – largely alders – coppiced or had overhanging branches cut to reduce the shade canopy (upwards of 50% of the pond’s perimeter).

The aim was to increase light and airflow to improve the pond’s ecology and allow marginal plants to grow and thrive, while reducing the volume of leaf litter and organic matter in the pond which negatively impacts the water quality.

 

October 2024

Following a tender process over the summer, specialist Aquamaintain was awarded the contract to deliver the restoration.

 

March 2024

WPCC was awarded a further grant by the Rewild London Fund to take forward plans to transform Queensmere – one of the Fund’s two flagship projects.

 

Summer 2023

Following a tender process, a specialist contractor was appointed to carry out the study. Through site visits and sample tests, a detailed report was produced with its findings and recommendations, (see below) enabling WPCC to apply for a larger grant to deliver some of the proposals.

 

April 2023

WPCC was awarded funding by the Rewild London Fund to carry out a feasibility study into improving the ecological value of Queensmere; to understand the factors affecting its ecology and develop landscape designs to improve the pond for wildlife and visitors.

 

Background.

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Project Background

Why did we carry out surveys first?

Before making changes to the pond with the aim of improving its ecological condition, we had to understand what factors are affecting it and have full information about the pond’s existing wildlife.

It was clear looking at the pond that it suffered from silt build up, but before proceeding with desilting we needed to ask whether this process would benefit or negatively affect its wildlife. In addition, removing silt from a pond is expensive due to the equipment needed so we wanted to make sure it was the right course of action.

Other questions included what would we do with the silt, how would we prevent it from reach the pond in future, how would we encourage marginal planting and how could we improve water quality?

 

What did we learn from the surveys?

The condition of a pond can be shaped by various factors. Nutrients in the water can become imbalanced due to the wildlife that uses it, it can become shaded by surrounded trees, silt can build up which can make the water murky and how visitors and dogs access the area can change what vegetation grows. These factors can reduce the ecological value of a pond, especially in terms of diversity of species.

 

Planting

A healthy pond has an abundance of diverse planting. Plants attract wildlife such as amphibians and invertebrates as well as providing refuge for waterfowl.

There was no marginal planting around Queensmere, except for duckweed, blanket weed and water lilies, due to its concrete banks and the shading of the surrounding trees. The adjacent banks were bare due to surface water run-off and also erosion from visitor, dog and waterfowl use. Erosion prevents vegetation from taking hold of the bank and the lack of vegetation increases erosion from surface water runoff.

Solution: Reprofile concrete banks by installing coir rolls planted with native aquatic plants to attractive wildlife such as amphibians and invertebrates and provide refuge for waterfowl.  A reedbed will be created to provide new habitat as well as helping to filter the water.

 

Wildlife

A number of comprehensive surveys of the pond and its surrounding area were completed to better understand its ecology and which wildlife species use it. The fish survey confirmed that pike, perch and tench were present.

Queensmere is popular with waterfowl includingCanadian Goose (Branta canadensis), Greylag Goose (Anser anser) and a smaller population of Egyptian Goose (Alopochen aegyptiaca). Other bird species observed within the pond area boundary include the Black headed gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus), European herring hull (Larus argentatus), Lesser black-backed Gull (Larus fuscous), Mallard (Anas platyhyhchos), Coot (Felice atra), Mute Swan (Cygnus olor), Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus), Tufted Duck (Aythya fuligula), Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) and Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea). 

 

Sediment

Silt, most visible at the pond’s inlet (the narrower end of the pond), had built up over many years due to debris and leaf litter from the surrounding trees, but mostly due to the pond’s down slope location. As water travels down the streams and slopes, the sediment travels with it, leading to high organic matter and impacting the water quality.

Recommendation - Desilting the pond would improve its overall through removing the component which is driving and exacerbating the poor water quality factors seen here. The silt that is removed during the desilting process can be reused to relandscape the eroded banks which will be seeded to provide a vegetative buffer against slope run-off.

By slowing the flow of water in the connecting streams, by creating leaky dams and leading it to the reedbed, the sediment will be caught before reaching the pond, settling between the plants. The reedbed would also help extract pollutants and excess nutrients from the water. 

 

Tree management

The pond is over 50% canopy shaded, which, unless managed, would: 

• reduce the amount of light getting to the pond
  prevent the successful growth of marginal vegetation - a vital component for a healthy wildlife pond.
  restrict wind movement over the pond, reducing wave action.
  increasing siltation from falling leaves in the areas immediately beneath the canopies.
  impact the water quality leading to algal blooms.
  increase the dominance of invasive duckweed as well as blanket weed.

Recommendation - The alders around the waters edge will be coppiced to allow more sunlight in to help oxygenate the ponds and help the reedbed grow, to reduce the amount of leaf litter falling into the water helping to prevent the ponds silting up in the future.

 

Visitor access and experience

Whilst the plants grow and establish these areas will need to be temporarily fenced off so that the plants do not get trampled and the seeded areas eroded. Access to the waters edge will be provided via unplanted sections and a viewing deck.

The deck will be a beautiful spot to see wildlife and admire the views across the pond. Signage will be installed about the wildlife to spot.

 

Click to enlarge