Rare plants boosted by creation of clean water ponds in countryside

DIGGING PONDS in the countryside can deliver “unprecedented” gains for nature, experts said after a study involving Yorkshire academics showed they significantly boosted rare plants.

A nine-year project found that creating just 20 clean water ponds across four square miles of farmland increased the number of wetland plant species by 26 per cent.

The number of regionally rare plants almost trebled, while species that had gone extinct in the local area returned, the research found.

The study, published in the journal Biological Conservation, tested a range of measures for improving freshwater habitat and wildlife in the countryside in three catchment areas in Leicestershire.

These included putting woody debris in streams, damming up ditches to create pools that slowed run-off and building interception ponds to filter out nutrients and other pollutants.

The project also created clean water ponds, focusing on digging them in low intensity pasture, scrub or woodland where they would fill up with clean water and avoid pollution running off from agriculture or roads.

In the absence of any measures the number of wetland plant species would have declined by nine per cent over the nine years of the project, the study said.

They were also one of the cheapest interventions, costing just £1,500-£2,000 each to dig. Penny Williams, from Freshwater Habitats Trust, said: “The gains we saw are unprecedented for freshwater and are, by a long way, the largest recorded improvements in freshwater diversity seen from adding land management measures to countryside landscapes.”

The results come from a project by the Freshwater Habitats Trust, Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, the University of York, the Environment Agency and landowners in Leicestershire.