Your video is great! I think that vernal pools should be sustainable without cleaning? at least mine seem to be. In addition to building my third fish pond last year, we have built a half dozen larger wetlands (1/10th acre to 3 acres on former farmland and planted tens of thousands of trees (with hand tools) over the last quarter century. Planting a couple hundred this spring (getting old, so less energy). We have also been controlling invasive plants in formerly over-harvested woodland. Wildlife habitat conservation is our main hobby and we love it. All of our ponds have, or will have, a "natural" edge to favor wildlife. A walk in the new snow today let me see a herd of deer running out of a developing wooded wetland. I am guessing the early browsing is better there. I need to dig a few more vernal pools in our woods this year if I can prioritize them high enough. We need more and they are very helpful to amphibians. Need to get a beaver guard on a culvert first thing. Keep up the good work! We need more folks doing this! Hope that other will post too.
Thank you. The floating yellow flowers are bladderwort which is an aquatic carnivorous plant. Some consider it invasive, but it is fine in this wetland where it has stayed for many years without spreading elsewhere.