West Park

Stopped. Watched. icon

Pond water level quite low, and apparently continuing to drop with no inflow. Is the parks staff letting it dry up? Hope the coming rain will help, but it did not seem to help after the last storm.

- observed by on

» Want more items like this one? Visit the Stopped. Watched. page.

The following terms describe the content of this article. Click on a term to see all articles described with that term:

Copyright 2013 The Ann Arbor Chronicle.

7 Comments

  1. By Jud
    May 9, 2013 at 10:51 am | permalink

    Just so it’s off the mowing grid, parks staff’s job is done. It’s more puddle than pond.

  2. By Susie
    May 9, 2013 at 3:15 pm | permalink

    Last summer it supported families of ducks and muskrats. I hope the water level comes back up.

  3. By TJ
    May 9, 2013 at 8:44 pm | permalink

    Strange, it seemed relatively high when I was there on Monday.

    There are still ducks and at least one muskrat – not to mention all those goldfish that people unthinkingly dumped in there.

  4. By George Hammond
    May 9, 2013 at 9:05 pm | permalink

    I think the pond level is supposed to fluctuate, but the pond is also supposed to have an array of native plants growing in and around it. Not just cattails, but lots of native aquatic wildflowers: water lilies, iris, and a bunch of things I don’t know the name of. They were planted in the pond last year, and it was beautiful in June, but then the muskrat family (and maybe the infamous carp) ate them all. Every single plant was gone by the end of the summer, and nothing except some submerged pond weed and a small stand of cattails seems present now. Maybe some things will re-sprout, but with an adult muskrat still present, I’m not hopeful. I sent pictures and information to city parks and stormwater management about this last year and this spring, but I don’t know what, if anything, they are doing. I think they should at least relocate the muskrat to the river, then maybe plants would have a chance to grow.

  5. By George Hammond
    May 9, 2013 at 9:06 pm | permalink

    oh, and the pond didn’t dry up last year despite the drought, I doubt it will do so this year.

  6. By cosmonıcan
    May 9, 2013 at 9:48 pm | permalink

    Does Monroe still have a big muskrat barbecue? Seems they used to do that around this time of year.

  7. By anna ercoli schnitzer
    June 4, 2013 at 3:52 pm | permalink

    We just visited West Park and noted that the pond looked pretty terrible. The water level was so low that ducks could WALK through it, and I don’t think any muskrat could be swimming there now. Also, the water was brown, green-vegetation-free and really dirty-looking. Sad to see! What happened?