Protect our Ponds
By – Liz Mckown,
The ponds in Carrington are so much more than just ponds. They are technically detention ponds engineered from the planning and design phase to accommodate water run-off from rain events and excess water from homeowner irrigation systems.
They are a critical piece of infrastructure. You can best see this in action when we have big rain events. Water levels rise in each pond and occasionally water rises over the sidewalks. Don’t be alarmed; that’s what it is designed to do. And within hours, the water flows from the far southwest pond to the large Pimlico pond then to Little River which carries it to Lake Thunderbird. Yet what most of us see when we view the ponds is the habitat they provide for ducks, turtles, herons, egrets, frogs and fish. They are a source of water for insects, butterflies, birds, and all manner of wildlife that pass through Carrington.
We irrigate our community open spaces with water from the ponds, which significantly reduces expenses when compared with purchasing water from the City of Norman. And our ponds are popular fishing spots, too! Our ponds have much to teach us about what makes a quality habitat for the fish, frogs and other large birds. Fish and other animals cannot survive in ponds with poor water quality.
We know that it is important to keep plants growing around the edges of the ponds for several reasons. First, they provide habitat. Ducks like to be where there is plant growth around a water source; geese do not. Redwing blackbirds, which eat mosquitoes, nest in the cattails. Several of our pond banks are quite steep and you can see the erosion that occurs when the banks are mowed all the way to the edge. Even the gentle movement of water erodes the fragile soil around the edges of all our neighborhood ponds. Plants help with erosion control when they establish their root systems in the ground in and near the water, thus providing a stabilizing effect for the soil around the pond edges. We will always maintain access points on all ponds (meaning areas where the grass is mowed down to the water’s edge) and we have trained people who manage the pond banks to create these access points.
As part of our Carrington Green Initiative, there are multiple places on multiple ponds where we will be supplementing the existing plants with flowering plants that like to live in wet conditions. For example, we currently have irises in a small area of the Pimlico pond that bloom every April-May for about 2-3 days. They are beautiful to look at but you have to be paying attention to see them! Goldenrod is a primary food source for butterflies in the late summer.
Lastly, plants are the final filters for the chemicals that run off our streets and yards so that less of these harmful chemicals enter the water. When we see large algae blooms, we know we have water quality issues. Our wonderful pond management company helps us control these outbreaks when they happen. It’s a fascinating world of water where everything works together in harmony to create the areas where our beloved ducks, birds and turtles live.
