A GROUP set up to help maintain a woodland lake that was in decline have been nominated for an award.

Friends of the Tarn are up for the Green Project or Group award at this year’s Green Guardian ceremony.

The tarn in Eltham is a nine-and-a-half acre site of aged woodlands, shrubberies, lawns and flowerbeds surrounding a natural lake, teeming with wildlife like ducks, geese, squirrels and foxes.

Chairwoman Carole Thomas said: “The tarn is close to the heart of residents. It’s a place to take time out and relax from the cares and worries of this busy world.”

The group started in February 2008 after members became concerned over a lack of maintenance.

In November 2008, school pupil were invited to help plant bulbs and youngsters still make regular trips to do fieldwork.

The friends have also made the existing pond more frog-friendly, spending much of the winter cleaning it up and planting it with native deep water and marginal plants.

Using an Awards for All grant from the National Lottery, the friends, who hold monthly volunteer days, are currently creating a butterfly garden.

The friends were first on the scene when some of the birds became ill and started to die in the lake last August.

Now the group is campaigning for the lake’s water quality to be improved.

Ms Thomas said: “We still have much to do but hope that our group efforts encourage more people to take an interest in their own environment as well as the tarn.”