# Thoughts on this?



## DONTLOOKATME (Apr 5, 2013)

Right, so a park near me has a relatively large undeveloped area (Not fenced off really, just overgrown and not really touched.), One side is bordered by a river and the other is bordered by a long pond which runs along the border of the park itself. 
The pond looks barren but if you look for a while you see it is pretty rife with fish, sticklebacks and a few minnows. It's mostly devoid of plants aside from a few marginals, very few.
Now today I was down there with a few friends and we found a dead bird, a massive, freshly killed pigeon with it's chest torn out. I'm assuming we scared off a fox or feral cat in the middle of a meal. Anyway, getting off point.
In the mess of feathers next to the body was a tiny common frog, It's two back legs were twisted at an awkward angle and stuck to a feather.
I soaked it in the pond for a few moments and, as gently as I could, peeled off the feathers.
Luckily Mr.Frog was uninjured and swam off to bury itself at the bottom of the pond, but not before the fish had a go at it...
My question is, would it be worth dumping a few buckets of elodea in the pond from a neighboring Canal? I figure the dense vegetation will greatly help the frogs population, I can't see many spawn or tads surviving in the plant less, stickle-back filled pond. But they are obviously breeding there.
So anyway, thoughts on helping along the frogs with some cover and food?
*I'm in Ireland by the way, but we have the same frogs and fish mostly.*


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## HABU (Mar 21, 2007)

elodea is a nasty weed.


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## DONTLOOKATME (Apr 5, 2013)

HABU said:


> elodea is a nasty weed.


It's the only plant I can get in big enough quantities to be of any use I'm afraid, and it will provide plenty of cover in the pond.


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## Drayvan (Jul 7, 2010)

If it's not a native plant then I wouldn't go introducing it.


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## HABU (Mar 21, 2007)

DONTLOOKATME said:


> It's the only plant I can get in big enough quantities to be of any use I'm afraid, and it will provide plenty of cover in the pond.


they grow fast... tend to choke ponds... here at least...


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## DONTLOOKATME (Apr 5, 2013)

HABU said:


> they grow fast... tend to choke ponds... here at least...


I've no problem doing regular clearouts of the stuff if that happens to become a problem, it's the only solution I can think of short of going on a plant hunting spree and picking up tonnes from some other pond..

There are no other species in the pond for it to compete with and it's already inhabiting the local river, I don't see it inhabiting a small pond a big problem.


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## bothrops (Jan 7, 2007)

Why not just leave nature to it?

Humans gently 'helping' nature hasn't really gone to plan in most areas.



If you really feel the need to alter the local environment why not talk to the land owner and/or The Environment agency and see if they are doing any work in the area or not.


The fact that you are considering introducing an invasive, alien plant into an otherwise unspoiled nature area shows that you may not have the training, background and expertise in habitat management that you would require to make sensible decisions regarding the setting up of a habitat management plan.

Ecosystems are incredibly complicated and it is never as simple as 'add a bit of plant to help the frogs' and is much more likely to have a number of long term adverse effects.

The fact that Elodea is already in the river is not a good reason to add it to the pond. In fact, the thinking ecologist might be looking at ways to prevent the invasive alien eventually entering the pond from the river rather than considering introducing it to the pond themselves!


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## MrJsk (Jul 29, 2012)

IMO you should just leave nature to it.


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