Restoring Islands in an Urban Lake

Amenity Water Management Ltd

Restoring Islands in an Urban Lake

The smaller island had all but disapeared

These two islands situated in quite a large urban lake had been too long neglected since Victorian construction and had all but disapeared in one case due to wave lap erosion and plenty of traffic from a healthy wildfowl population.

The large island consisted of heavily undercut tree roots

The dredger arrives on site

The materials were moved to the islands and the revetments to form the new bank line installed. Three types of revetment were used on the large island. A third was willow spiling, a third hazel faggot bundles with planted coir rolls and the last third was a platform for the ducks constructed in oak. Backfilling behind the revetments was with silt dredged from the lake and these areas were also planted with indigenous aquatic species.

Work in progress on the large island

and launches itself into the lake

The willow spiling section and part of the duck platform

The restored small island with the large island in the background

The completed small island planted up with netting to keep off the geese

Large island looking at the duck platform

The small Island was restored using hazel faggot bundles with planted coir rolls and pallets to form the top edge. The planting on both islands is protected from large scale geese grazing with black netting until at least one further growing season has passed. The wildfowl population does have unrestriced access to the platform and centre of the large island.

The completed large island.