By David Nesham
Recent activities by visitors to Rodley Nature Reserve are causing major concerns as to the safety of the habitat and wildlife.
The Reserve has very varied and interesting habitats amongst which is a series of dipping ponds and ponds designed specifically for dragonfly and damselfly. The wildlife in these areas is particularly active at this time of year, especially with an abundance of tadpoles.
Unfortunately, several members of the public have been visiting the Reserve bringing along their own nets and containers.
A recent incident was reported by a visitor who had witnessed a fellow visitor with children netting tadpoles and placing them in a container which no doubt will have left the site.
Tadpoles removed from their habitat are unlikely to survive and having a very low survival rate because of natural predation their removal only compounds the issue.
Reserve Trustee Denese Swann said: “Our ponds have to be managed carefully both for the pond life and habitat and the Trust also has responsibility for visitor safety and, critically, the bio security for the Reserve as a whole.
“There are some nasty diseases which could be brought in on nets that could kill the tadpoles along with other aquatic life.
“The nodes of the invasive species known as Crassula helmsii is easily transferred which can, over time, spread wildly to choke ponds completely and is recognised as one the biggest threats to wetland habitats.
“Our own nets are sterilised after every session with each pond having its own set to prevent cross infection. I hope that visitors will understand the reasons why we need to be vigilant and comply with the no unauthorised dipping requirements.”
The Reserve will continue with its plan to reopen supervised pond dipping from 24 May and would welcome anyone interested in volunteering with this activity to register their interest by visiting www.rodleynaturereserve.org.
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Every primary school in the country takes frogspawn so it can become tadpoles in the classroom, then be released back in the pond. It’s not a problem, if anything it means more tadpoles will survive to become frogs.
Hey Biggy, If you read the article properly it is a problem for the reasons stated. You also also wrong about primary schools.
As usual it is selfish actions by people with little common sense. This is a carefully managed area, if you’re thinking of doing something like this why wouldn’t you at least ask first?