Wildlife pond webcam
Wildlife pond
A live view of a wildlife pond connected to Rush Lake on the Whitefish Chain located in Crosslake, Minnesota, part of the Brainerd Lakes Area
We’ve built our pond in our Sebastopol, California backyard, in the hole that was left when we took down our above ground pool (the deep end was dug in). We’ve used mostly native plants, many of which we have found along the roadsides from San Francisco, CA to Tillamook, OR. A lot of the fun in building this pond has been finding the plants, identifying them, and just seeing what will survive and what won’t. We’ve also collected our own rocks. One of our biggest joys is seeing all the `critters’ our pond supports, especially the dragonflies!
We encourage everyone to consider putting in a pond for wildlife.
As we’ve already mentioned, the world’s amphibian population is disappearing at an alarming rate. At the same time, natural wildlife ponds and bog areas are disappearing – being drained in both the countryside by encroaching development as well as in the back gardens of older homes. Environmentally unfriendly new trends in gardening mean that many house-owners are designing their gardens with no respect for how the local wildlife might interact with it. Besides excessive shingling and decking, another environmentally unfriendly aspect of garden design is the “water feature” Often created around a circulatory system involving electric pumps which passes water around a series of channels tubes and ramps – finally ending up in a concrete bucket or small pond with hard, high walls containing a few ornamental fish. This kind of “water feature” has nothing to do with harmonizing with the natural environment, even though people who create these so called stress relieving environs think it does!
You can play an important part in helping to reverse both this trend and in turn the increasing threats to our wetland wildlife – at the cost of just a few pounds – and you will also educationally benefit from this simple “life-creating” project.
Goldfish or any ornamental fish and wildlife ponds just don’t mix. If you want to build an ornamental pond then you are looking at the wrong web site. However, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t consider having both types of ponds in your garden (as long as they are at least 15 metres apart to prevent contamination of the natural pond).
It is simply untrue that fish keep down the algea in ponds. In fact fish generate excessive amounts of body waste, which causes a build up of sludge and other toxic based problems for other pond-life, plants and water. By laying out a fish-free wildlife pond in the right mix of shade and sunlight, your pond water will naturally manage itself throughout a yearly cycle.
Goldfish eat dragonfly eggs, newt eggs, toad eggs and many other pond insect eggs. Such fish are simply an alien species when added to a wildlife pond whereby the ecology of this mini bio-system is destroyed.
To enjoy a real wildlife pond you need a little patience at first before you begin to see signs of underwater life, but when it eventually kicks in, the diversity of creatures large and small will soon fullfill your wildest expectations. It will prove far more interesting than a few bored ornamental fish and at the same time you will be playing your part in VeggieGlobal’s aim to encourage the re-establishment of natural pond ecosystems across the world.
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