f anyone ever wanted evidence that Bermudians care about the environment, all they have to do is take a look at Pittman?s Pond next to Somerset Longbay in Somerset.

Two years ago the Bermuda National Trust and the Bermuda Audubon Society set out to raise $1.7 million to purchase the land from a local family in what became known as The Buy Back Bermuda campaign.

Bermudians came through with not $1.7 million, but $2 million. The Bermuda Government donated $300,000.

When the dust settles, The Bermuda National Trust (BNT) and the Bermuda Audubon Society hope that this place will shine as one of Bermuda?s top bird watching spots.

Last Sunday, the community came through again with a posse of volunteers helping to clean up the masses of trash and glass bottles left around the site from its days as a bottle dump.

?We just did a nice clean-up session there over the weekend,? said Valerie Wallis, Bermuda National Trust Properties Manager. ?It was a dump site in the 1970s. We had heavy machines in there to make the pond bigger and create a mud flat area. We have also created some nice islands in the middle for them. ?

Unfortunately, despite the clean-up effort there is still broken glass all around the edges of the pond on either side of a newly erected fence.

The Bermuda National Trust plans to put a four to five inch dressing of compost over this.

?The compost will enable us to sow some Bermuda grass,? she said. ?Retired government conservation officer David Wingate designed this nature reserve.?

Some of the extra money raised will go towards maintenance of the pond, while the rest will go towards buying another piece of property.

?Buy Back Bermuda will be continuing,? Ms Wallis said. ?We are looking at what we can do for the future. Pittman?s Pond took an awful lot of time and energy. We need to make this nature reserve look its absolute best.

?It was thought that because of the crisis of over development going on at the moment, that the next Buy Back Bermuda campaign will just secure some land, and not actually do the restoration yet. We will just focus money and energy on securing it.?

The location of the next Buy Back project will probably be announced at the beginning of 2007.

?We are planning to have a grand opening in early February for Pittman?s Pond and the surrounding nature reserve,? said Ms Wallis. ?We have done some planting. We planted some West Indian almonds, southern hackberry and other trees. It was too hot for much else in the summer. Our next stage will be to do some additional planting and to order up some educational signs.?

Ms Wallis said that the dredging of the pond didn?t seem to bother the avian residents. Many birds returned to the pond again almost as soon as the dredging was over.

?Pittman?s pond was already a very good birding spot,? she said. ?The far west of the Island is a good place for birds because it is the first place they land when entering the Island. Early in the morning is often a good time to see the birds. We have kept the site secure. We are not encouraging people to go on it. There is a circular pond near the road for drainage. We don?t want anyone to fall in there.?

The public will be allowed in at some stage, but there are still a few more projects to be done around the pond.