Close by the Community Orchard is the Willow Pond, this is a seasonal pond and dries up in summer & the volunteers have previously helped develop this pond helping to maintain its body of water for a longer period in order to extend the benefit to wildlife for a longer part of spring & into summer. Froglife have now designed a pond for the community orchard that should have water all year round. Because the orchard is fenced off it can be deeper than Willow Pond and has been designed to provide water for wildlife through all the seasons.

It will be planted up with native aquatic plants and marginals etc and has been designed with a variety of different habitats. 

The funding for the project is coming from the biodiversity grant that Yaxley Parish Council were awarded by Huntingdonshire District Council.

Watch this space for further updates on this exciting pond project as it develops

Swifts are in serious decline due to loss of nest sites, something we can do something about. Yaxley is an important location for them.  Last year we followed the RSPB guidelines on providing nest boxes in 6 sites.  This year we hope to build on this initiative. 

Ash dieback is spreading across the country and all we can do is monitor it.  We can photograph the stock of ash trees in Yaxley and report our findings.  For the future we have  replace these trees with suitable alternative species this is where can help.

To help with lack of nectar rich plants for insects we need to create more sites with flowering plants.  Currently we help with lavender maintenance at the cemetery, but we can do much more sowing wild/cultivated plants that feed insects.  We hope to sow these in the Community Orchard & other sites