We live in a housing development: single family homes on 0.5 to 2 acre lots, in Virginia, USA. There is a pond that is approx 600 feet by 80 feet and has brush only on one side about 40 feet long. There are trees and brush and a stream not far but otherwise just grass. See picture. The HOA would like to eliminate the rest of the brush to make the pond look more neat. They have already removed about 30 feet of the adjacent pond side brush and the swans put their nest where the brush was removed after it was removed. We don't know where their nest was when the brush was still there but it could have been in the same spot but just too covered by the brush to see. Some community members feel that it is ok to remove the remaining brush as the swans did not use that brush as a place for their nest, at least not this year. Others worry that removing the remaining brush will make the swans and their future nests vulnerable to prey.

There are small rodents and small foxes occasionally in the neighborhood. The proponents to removing the brush point out that the swans often sleep right on the open grass along the water and don't seem to be attacked by these other animals. On the other hand, this year the swans laid 4 eggs and in the end we were left with only one new swan, who is now full grown. To protect the nest when we noticed that one was missing, a small plastic fence barrier was erected a few feet from the nest.