Maes Y Grug Lake"

Maes y Grug, Alltami, Buckley

July 2006

Wildlife Matters Autumn 2004 Issue 36:

The increasing numbers of Canada Geese are causing damage to growing crops, urban parks, golf courses and nature reserves, particularly around lakes and ponds where they destroy the grass and cause bank erosion. The geese are responsible for extensive fouling of grassland, footpaths and lakes, causing an unpleasant nuisance. The droppings contain bacteria that may be harmful, and during the nesting season they can be aggressive towards humans. They lay a clutch of three to eleven eggs in April with an incubation period of about thirty days.

The population at Maes-y-Grug former opencast site, Alltami is increasing. The site is managed for Great crested newts, but the geese disturb the water, graze on the vegetation, which is required for egg-laying, and attack humans in the amphibian monitoring season, April to May. As they increase in numbers, so the variety and numbers of other bird species on the site decrease.

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Wildlife Matters Spring 2005 Issue 37:

DUWG have now acquired land within this site which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and it is anticipated that management works will begin shortly. To assist in managing these sites and others that the group own that are SSSIs, management agreements are currently being negotiated with CCW (Countryside Council for Wales). The aim is to gain funding for positive conservation on DUWG sites.

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The "Wildlife Matters" Spring Issue 40 for the newly named NEWWildlife states:

MAES Y GRUG

NEWW has now acquired part of the Maes y Grug SSSI and has started to implement management works. With funding from CCW scrub has been cleared from around ponds on the part of the site NEWW now own. Also tree surgery has taken place to make safe trees alongside the access road. With funding from EAW two additional ponds are to be created on the site for the benefit of newts.

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Two additional scrapes/ponds were created in the grassland area for the benefit of amphibians; tree clearance from around ponds; dead wooding of trees along the access road through the site - all work done in the first half of 2006.

The "Wildlife Matters" Summer Issue 41:

Maes-y-Grug is a former open cast site with which DUWG first became involved in March 1991, when we were asked to remove amphibians from a pond prior to excavations. Two years later it was restored with a large lake and reed bed, ponds, meadow and woodland. NEWWildlife this year became the owner of a large section of this site.

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The "Wildlife Matters" Summer 2007 Issue 44:

Hibernacula and scrape creation at Maes-y-Grug, Alltami

Present: Karl Martin, Lorraine Jones, Heather Owen (Work experience volunteer)

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The "Wildlife Matters" July 2009

Eight new scrapes were created to vary the habitat within the rushy pasture for the benefit of amphibians. While digging, we heard a grasshopper warbler, and saw the birds, which we suspected were nesting, so we steered clear of the area with the digger!

Author: North East Wales Wildlife

Maes Y Grug Lake"

Maes y Grug, Alltami, Buckley

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