Ford Park Ponds Restoration - The Journey Begins - April 10

[Big Bear Legal Eagle]

Hi IE Anglers:

I have finally put together the political framework to get going on this with the goal of doing the restoration next fall. If you would like to help out - particularly if you have a special skill set - please join us at an organizational meeting on Wednesday April 10 at 7:00 pm at the parking lot at the tennis courts. After we walk the ponds, we can meet at our home in Redlands to further brainstorm. We will provide the refreshments and adult beverages.
You can contact me either at my regular e-mail, McAttorney@aol.com, or you can call me at (909) 793-3512. If this notice is too short or the timing is bad for a majority of interested participants, we can change the date.
Thank you in advance for your assistance!

Barrett McInerney (pronounced "Mack an' Ernie" like "Burt an' Ernie)

[sumodnb]

Sweet looking forward to it! I think they emptied them out not to long ago, but ponds that size get ugly fast, especially when anglers place structure (trash cans) in the lake.

[Big Bear Legal Eagle]

The idea would be to drain the top pond first, move the fish to the lower pond and then clean out and recontour the bottom and shoreline of the upper pond. On the slope leading to the northeast corner of the top pond there would be a waterfall to aerate and re-circulate the water. The spillway between the upper and lower pond would be removed and replaced with a waterfall as the water moves from the top pond to the lower pond. Once the upper pond is completed we would refill the upper pond and duplicate the process on the lower pond. The lower pond would have a floating aerator fountain. The recirculating pump and aerator would be solar powered. I am still researching whether a planted bog area at the south end of the lower pond would remove many of the water-borne nutrients that fuel the weed and algae blooms in the summer.

[carpanglerdude]

Wow, thank you for moving this project forward!

I will not be able to make the Wednesday meeting but I would like to still help.


Couple of questions:
1. How will you take into account the fish in spawn mode right now? Any ideas on saving as many fry as possible if the drainage takes place after the spawn?
2. Any aeration/filter setup needs to be one not easily tangeled or fouled by fishing line. Remember what happened to Tennwinkle Park in the OC...

[GhettoBasster]

Thanks for spearheading this. I would love to help. Can't make the Wednesday meeting though. I have the same concerns as Carpangler's . Also, I'm curious what method will be used to catch the fish? I'm sure these questions will be answered at the meeting.

[Big Bear Legal Eagle]

First, if you cannot attend on Wednesday, drop me a note with your contact information so we can coordinate for future meetings. My direct e-mail is McAttorney@aol.com
Second, putting the bass, bluegill and catfish into the lower pond in the interim will make the process easier. I have the contact info for the CDFG biologist who oversaw a similar process at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco for advice and direction.
Finally, my gut instinct is that late fall and early winter would be preferable given the fish spawning cycles.
When the City of LA drained and recontoured Echo Park Lake (albeit substantially larger than both Ford Ponds combined), the bill was $65 MILLION. I'm thinking that if we do the ponds sequentially and use volunteer labor, we can bring this project in on a tiny fraction of that cost.
Nobody is ever going to confuse the Ford Park ponds with DVL or Perris in terms of fishing quality, but we can certainly make the ponds scenically and biologically function as "Huck Finn" ponds to create fishing opportunities for parents and grandparents to entertain their young family members. And there will always be a handful of "pigs" who will abuse any resource, but if we allow the worst of us to dissuade the best of us, the "pigs" win.
We may be “merely” fishermen but you should never underestimate the power of the committed angler. There was a very good reason why Jesus chose fishermen for His apostles....

[carpanglerdude]

Emailed! Thank you again for coordinating such efforts!