On Golden Retention Pond
Retention Pond News
| 2/18/2010 Completed spreading available wood chips on the trails. Most of the original trails that are still passable were covered with chips before we ran out. 1/29/2010 It was decided to recycle the wood chips by spreading them on trails in the Native Growth area. 1/23/2010 We rented a wood chipper to reduce the size of the debris pile. The wood chip pile is 11 feet long, 7 feet wide and 4 feet tall (11 cu. yds). The wood chip pile would have been bigger but one of our neighbors across Maltby asked for and hauled off several loads of logs. The remaining logs were stacked along the fence and hopefully he will stop by in the next few weeks to finish picking them up. Otherwise we will be hauling them off to clear the area. Disposing of the wood chip pile would still cost more than $150 and we hope to fill available space in yard waste containers in our neighborhood to get rid of some or all of it. 1/18/2010 The debris pile is 75 feet long, 10 feet wide and averages 5 feet tall (138 cu. yds). Estimated cost for disposal at $12/yd is $1800. We will be chipping the debris to reduce the volume and hope to find enough volunteer yard waste containers to avoid disposal costs. 1/11/2010 Confirmed that Snohomish County is moving forward with their maintenance of the pond cells and separator but we do not know at this time when work will begin. In preparation, we have already removed 154 trees ranging from 1 to 14 inches in diameter per their direction. 12/17/2009 Received a letter from Snohomish County confirming our pond qualifies for the county to use federal funds to do a one-time maintenance of the pond cells and separator. We have been working with the county for some time to accomplish this and in addition to insuring it is serviced correctly it is a significant savings for homeowners. The board has authorized the county to access the pond for this purpose. 12/12/2009 Pond Cleanup - over the past week, removed trees from within 3 feet of the Maltby road fence and near the pond inflow per Snohomish County. Taking advantage of the frozen pond (5 inches thick) many of the heavier trees were transported across the ice. More trees need to be carried out and the work will continue around the fence. Several fence posts including one of the gate posts were found broken and will need to be repaired. 9/18/2008 Pond Cleanup - removed remaining trees from Pond Cell 1 Access Ramp and trees that had fallen into Pond Cell 1. Removed trees from Pond Cell 1 finger berm except trees too large to safely cut. These trees will have to be removed professionally. 9/17/2008 Pond Cleanup - cleared gate area for free operation of gate gate. Removed more trees from Pond Cell 1 Access Ramp. 9/16/2008 Pond Cleanup - removed trees from Pond Cell 1 Access ramp. Trees and branches are being stored on the grass portion of access road for future disposal. 7/23/2008 Received report from Jesse Jarosz with a list of repairs needed in the pond area. There is no budget for pond repairs so they will be prioritized and done as the Association is able. 7/22/2008 Ron Duncan met with Surface Water Management Jesse Jarosz at the pond for inspection of pond condition. 7/5/2008 Removed scotch broom and about half a trash bag of garbage from the pond area. Mostly beer cans and bottles thrown over the fence. No Goose. |
| Spring 2007 Removed scotch broom and a full bag of trash. Goose was trapped and removed by Wildlife Management. |
| Spring 2006 Removed scotch broom |
| 4/9/2005 Pulled scotch broom from pond area and NGPA area behind pond. Goose is back, sitting on seven eggs. |
| 3/30/2004 Began pulling scotch broom in the pond area. Cut down all the trees on top of the center berm and removed branches from the sides of the berm that were blocking passage. We will be back next Wednesday to continue scotch broom removal. The goose is back this year sitting on seven eggs. Department of Wildlife has been notified. |
| Spring2003 Removed scotch broom and a few of the trees on the center berm near the gate per the surface water management folks. There was a goose sitting on its nest, we worked around it and were able to get to all that was blooming. Found out later that we are supposed to call somebody to come and get the nest so the geese don't multiply and become a huge nuisance. |
| 5/20/2002 Finished scotch broom removal; remaining scotch broom is too small to bloom/seed and will be easier to pick up next year. 5/13/2002 Began removing visible scotch broom from pond area |
| 4/23/2001 Finished disposing of chipped up scotch broom in neighborhood yard waste containers. Thanks to everyone who helped by donating leftover space in their yard waste container. 4/8/2001 Marty was able to get a chipper and we spent an hour and a half chipping up all the scotch broom into a pile outside the pond gate. Please feel free to top off your yard waste container with material from the pile. Pacific Topsoils charges $11/yard to dispose of it. It is no additional cost if we use our existing yard waste. 4/6/2001 Finished removing scotch broom from pond area and also removed some from native growth area upwind from pond. Scotch broom kills the native undergrowth as it spreads. If you run across any scotch broom in our neighborhood common areas please feel free to remove it. It is not a native plant. 3/24/2001 Cut down most of the scotch broom and removed a large part of it out to the pond driveway. There was quite a bit of trash in the pond. A lot of it was removed but there is a lot left to pick up. Waiting for a sunny day to resume the cleanup. 3/15/2001 Ron Duncan spoke with Nat Washington, the surface water retention focal at Snohomish county, at our pond Tuesday March 13, 2001. Mr. Washington installed a county lock, and gave us a spreadsheet to give us an idea of what sort of basic maintenance we can do to make sure the pond performs as it is supposed to and inspected the pond. He explained that the Scotch Broom was a problem and needed to be removed from the entire pond area and the alder needed to be removed from the gate area and the top of the center grassy area. There is some grass that has grown over the overflow drain which also needs to be removed. With that information it seems we can maybe try to transplant some of the trees into the native growth area ourselves. If they don't make it we won't be out any money for trying. The scotch broom needs to be removed before it starts making more seeds to spread all over. If it is not objectionable the plant material could be stored at the North end of the pond driveway as it is cleared until we get an idea how much is there and how to dispose of it. Mr. Washington stated it would probably take several cuttings on the Scotch Broom before it stops coming back. If you are interested in helping or going at it yourself please contact one of the board members. |