Many Partner with the Anguilla National Trust to Clean Up East End Pond Conservation Area

Mouth filled with Debris

Youth Groups, Community Groups, and Private Sector partner with Anguilla National Trust

(Pond Site, Anguilla) During the early morning of Saturday 10 April, under overcast skies and the threat of rain, about 20 members of various youth and community groups from across the island assisted the Anguilla National Trust with a clean-up campaign of East End Pond Conservation Area.

Organised as part of the Optimist Club of Anguilla’s Youth Week, youth group and supporting partners included Anguilla’s Junior Optimist Octagon International Club, the Albena Lake Hodge Comprehensive School Environmental and Conservation Club, the Anguilla Red Cross, the Juvenile Rehabilitation Centre, and Citrus. Island Landscape Irrigation, a private landscaping company, also joined the effort.

The clean-up activity involved the removing of old fencing material, cement blocks, pallets, fallen vegetation, and general refuse from the Conservation Area. Particular attention was paid to cleaning up garbage and material from the line of oleander trees that served as a natural border for the area for approximately five years. As part of a longer-term project for the area, the clean-up served as the first phase of site restoration programme. With the help of Martin Zidtowecki, co-owner of Island Landscape Irrigation, the oleander trees were removed from Conservation Area. These trees will be replaced with buttonwood – a type of mangrove that thrives in saline and wetland conditions. Zitowecki and his business partner, Ishmael Parris, have generously offered to donate buttonwood trees and to assist with their planting over the next three months.

At the end of the morning, clean-up participants enjoyed a breakfast catered by the Optimist Club of Anguilla who wishes to express thanks to Gee Wee’s Bakery, Highway Bakery and Lakes Marketplace for their kind sponsorship.

East End Pond Conservation Area was designated a protected area in 2001 by the Government of Anguilla through the Anguilla National Trust Act and was vested to the ANT that same year. The Conservation Area covers 13 acres of pond and land. Over 45 species of birds have used the pond as feeding, resting, and nesting grounds.

The Anguilla National Trust would like to thank the Optimist Club of Anguilla, all participating members and their respective organisations along with Island Landscape Irrigation for their assistance and support.

Youth help to clean conservation area - The historic, windowless Old East End School is in the background