Washington County Conservation board received a $6,810 grant from the Washington County Riverboat Foundation for the Willow Pond enhancement project.

Washington County Conservation staff and local Eagle Scouts were busy this week landscaping Willow Pond west of Washington on the Kewash Nature Trail.

This is one of the final steps in the decade-long process Washington County Conservation has taken to revitalize the pond. The conservation board received grants over the years to clean out the pond for fish and armor the shoreline. The last phase of the Willow Pond enhancement has recently been funded in part by the Washington Betterment Foundation and the Washington County Riverboat Foundation.

Conservation board director Steve Anderson talks about this last step in what he calls “dressing up” the pond, “That is specifically to allow us to do some landscaping. What that amounts to is we’re putting in a bunch of flowers and then some native trees and species around the pond. And also we’re going to put in a single family shelter house and then little seat benches on each of the two jetties.”

With the contributions and help from Washington Eagle Scout Sam Fields, the Washington Betterment Foundation, and the Washington County Riverboat Foundation, Anderson says this has turned into a great community project. Anderson says if all goes well the project could be completed by July 4.