Bringing dew ponds back to the South Downs landscape to help nature thrive. Help us to restore our iconic dew ponds!
The “Pounds for Ponds” initiative is seeking to invest around £1m to create and restore 100 ponds across Hampshire and Sussex over the next decade.
Dew ponds are synonymous with the chalk grassland of the South Downs, historically being dug by farmers as a watering hole for livestock and some dating back several hundred years.
These pretty ponds are also havens for all manner of species – supporting around 70 per cent of all freshwater species found in lowland landscapes in the UK.
However, over many decades and due to changes in farming practices, dozens of these wildlife oases have fallen into disrepair or been lost completely. With climate change bringing hotter, drier summers, ponds have an increasingly critical role to play in providing habitat and sources of water for wildlife.
Pounds for Ponds aims to reverse this decline by providing vital funding to transform derelict ponds and create some new ones.
Partnership
The initiative is being led by the South Downs National Park Trust – the official independent charity for the National Park – in partnership with pond specialist and wildlife charity Froglife.
Kathy Wormald, CEO of Froglife, said: “It’s fantastic for Froglife to be partnering the South Downs National Park Authority in this project and to be able to contribute towards the costs of restoring valuable dew ponds. The Pounds for Ponds project complements Froglife’s Discovering Dewponds which is also working in the South Downs on restoring dewponds and working with local communities to raise awareness of the historical and biodiversity value of dew ponds.”
We are now looking to restore a network of these ponds, increasing the avaialbility and connectivity of surface water on the chalk of the South Downs.
Funding
Funding, including support from National Lottery Heritage Fund, Bannister Trust and BMW, has been secured to restore more than 20 ponds. The Trust is now looking to raise £800,000 to restore a further 80 ponds.
A few dew ponds have been restored during previous tranches of funding from the National Park and are already seeing biodiversity bouncing back. The Trust was able to restore a pond at Seaford Haven and a recent wildlife survey at the dewpond recorded over 200 species. This included the rare lesser emperor dragonfly nymph, which is the first UK record of its breeding.
Scores of other ponds have been identified for similar restoration work, but fundraising is now needed to make the dream a reality.
Restoring or creating a dew pond involves significant landscaping and planting to create a welcoming environment for animals.
“Pounds for Ponds” is one strand of the National Park’s #ReNature initiative, which aims to create 13,000 hectares of new land managed for nature over the next decade to help tackle the biodiversity crisis. Find out more at www.southdowns.gov.uk/renature/
