The drive to re-pond the UK

Across the world we are losing a lot of valuable wildlife habitats, some of which once upon a time thrived in coexistence with human activities. Now I found out whilst nestled into my sofa chatting over a warm mug of tea with a close friend, that there are ambitious attempts being made right here to bring one such habitat, ponds, back from the dead. You'll find out that me saying quite literally is true in this instance, slightly later on. In the UK, a scheme has been set up forming the District Level Licensing for Great Crested Newts. It consists of multiple contributors, one of which we are gonna join. So put your wellies on if you will. And let's venture out on a pond hunt to hear what's happened to them, why they're important and how we can all help with their reanimation...

Lucy - There's no plant life here yet, but there are quite a few invertebrates using the pond already. Oh, and look over there. Obviously birds have been down to visit and drink. Their prints are in the mud. Yeah it's looking brilliant.

Harry - This is Lucy Jenkins and her British Setter Wally, she's a farm environment advisor at Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group East or FWAG East as it's better known. For the most part she works on the UK's pond project in association with Natural England.

Lucy - Well, the UK has lost 50% of its ponds over the last century. So that's half a million ponds lost in the UK over the last hundred years.

Harry - Why is that?

Lucy - Well, they've been lost for a number of reasons. The intensification of agriculture, ponds used to be an essential part of sort of activities on the farm. You know, they used to be used for livestock watering. Whereas now livestock troughs will be used instead, drinking troughs ponds, they would've been dug for mar pits, mar was used as the soil conditioner. Obviously those kind of activities don't go on anymore. So you don't have the same kind of creative ponded forces at play.

Harry - That's interesting that you're saying that this ecosystem was in harmony with our old agricultural practices.

Lucy - Yeah, absolutely. Having a source of clean, fresh water on the farm was absolutely essential. In a way that is less so now.

Harry - You're putting these ponds back in with FWAG. What is the work that you do specifically? What do those projects entail?

Lucy - Yeah, the main pond project that we are working on at the moment is a pond creation and restoration project for great crested newts. So we are digging new ponds and we are restoring dilapidated ponds to provide better habitat for great crested newts.

Harry - When I think of a pond, I think of koi fish down the end of the garden, but what actually is a pond Lucy?

Lucy - If I was being really technical a limnologist would say the difference between a pond and a lake is that sunlight can reach the bottom of a pond. It can't reach the bottom of a lake because a lake is so deep. So there is an area at the bottom of a lake, which doesn't get sunlight.

Harry - We're going to go off and follow you. Now everybody's coming along and a little tour to see what exactly it is that you get up to and how you manage to improve the ecosystems that are surrounding us from the day to day. Who's up first?

Lucy - First port of call is Dan's place visiting a site that has potential for pond creation for great crested newts. So we're gonna go and check that out. It's just down the road.

Harry - You better get out of the pond Luce.

Lucy - I'm stuck! Please don't put that in!

Harry - Great crested newts have suffered huge population declines, but ponds support other life too. In fact, two thirds of all freshwater species can reside there. Rare creatures like fairy shrimp and amphibian suffering population declines as well, including your common frog or toad. They can Harbor more invertebrates than rivers, not to mention the mammals, birds and bats that all love the water, especially in the summer, and insect chimneys that rise up from them. Ponds can even act as carbon reservoirs and mitigate flooding. So once we managed to get Lucy and wrestle her out of that pond, we're off to see Dan Lister at Winwick it close to Huntingdon. Although maybe Dan had been working a little bit too hard because he couldn't seem to quite recall where he was.

Dan - What do you mean? Where are we? Big question. We're in a dog leg of a field that tends to sit very wet. So it's not a particularly productive agricultural side and I've offered it up to Lucy here that if she wants it for her newt project, it's an ideal space for it.

Harry - Lucy, first impressions on arriving?

Lucy - So this looks absolutely perfect for the newt ponds project. There's really good connectivity around the site. There's really mature, dense, bushy hedgerows. That mean the newts have sort of dispersing habitat so they can get away from the site. They can get to the site. The habitat that we're standing in is a mix of fine grasses and wildflowers, mainly oxide daisy. So again, that's sort of perfect foraging habitat for the newts to be praying on things like beetles, slugs, snails, when they're in their terrestrial phase.

Harry - And is this sort of how the process normally works? Would you meet up with the landowner and then the landowner points out where they think the pond should go. But if you are the specialist, shouldn't you be coming to the land and pointing at which part you want to put the pond into?

Lucy - Absolutely not. You know, they'll know where it sits wet. They know where the soil is clay, will hold water. The farmer has inspiration for where might be a good place for a pond.

Harry - And what's the next step?

Lucy - I'll go away back to my desk and come up with some draft pond designs that I'll send over to Dan, and then he can comment on them. We can change them around, we can change the sizes, the shapes. And then we go from there really.

Harry - And so looking at this plot of land, what will you be advising to Dan? What does the future of this landscape look like?

Lucy - Ideally having sort of several multiple ponds is much more valuable to wildlife than one large one. So the reason for that is if one pond becomes polluted or it gets high nutrient levels in from runoff, or it gets fish in, the newts have other ponds to get to. Equally, if one of the ponds dries in summer, they've got other ponds that they can make use of in the local area, in the very nearby local area.

Harry - Lucy's just mentioned surface runoff. And I guess that comes down to the chemicals that you are using on your farm. Is that something that we do need to be aware of?

Dan - Every farmer does their very best to minimize that kind of thing, but there is always the chance of it. The scene we are looking at now, we've got about 200 yards before there's an actual arable crop. So there's a really good buffer. It's very, very unlikely, there shouldn't be any chemical contamination where we are now.

Harry - We were speaking on the way down when the mic wasn't on. And I said, I thought this whole operation is really interesting because normally there's a conflict between conservationists and farmers and you laughed at me. Why were you laughing?

Dan - Well, there, there shouldn't actually be a conflict. Very few farmers aren't interested in conversation. Basically farmers are busy. They are working seven days a week, 12, 14 hours a day. All farmers actually love the environment they're in. That's why they're doing the job.

Harry - And do you think that that public perception, what I've just said, do you think that's a common theme?

Dan - Yeah. I think the general public has a view that farmers are spreading chemicals around the countryside, willy nilly, that isn't actually necessary. Farmers don't like using chemicals at all. In fact, a lot of the things that we apply to the crop is just to meet the rules of various schemes that we're in.

Harry - We leave the marshy farmland and walk adjacent to the hillside that Dan's father replanted with trees. Dan says, it's his turn to give something back. So after their five minute chat, it's all decided. Lucy's gonna tackle the paperwork and forward over some drawings and Dan will dig the actual site. It's as simple as that.