Funding from Eat Natural enabled Essex Wildlife Trust to run its final 2022 Urban Wildlife Champion workshop, led by our Head of Community Engagement Jennifer Burlingham, alongside expertise from John Tate at Swallow Aquatics.
Frogspawn clumps of common frogs in pond.
Held at Abberton Reservoir Nature Discovery Park, our Urban Wildlife Champions learnt how to protect, enhance and manage ponds, alongside advice on how to create ponds in gardens.
Although drizzling and misty, our Urban Wildlife Champion’s spirits weren’t dampened and Jennifer and John kickstarted the workshop with a tour around two educational ponds to discuss ‘what makes a good wildlife pond’. 50% of our ponds in the UK have been lost in the 20th century, with 80% in a poor state. They support two thirds of all freshwater species including familiar names such as the common toad and blue-tailed damselfly.
Alongside identifying the different water depths, John pointed out some of the marginal and submerged native plant species that can be found in and around ponds, alongside those that could be beneficial to introduce such as water forget-me-not, purple loosestrife, yellow Irish and marsh-marigold. Often the most important and complex part of a pond is the edge, the drawdown zone, and it was highlighted that a fluctuation in water level is in fact beneficial!
The Urban Wildlife Champions were then given a chance to get stuck in themselves, with 6 plant species on offer, planting commenced! Although when creating a new pond, plants and animals are adapted to finding new sites, if it is a garden site or an urban area planting is an option. Urban Wildlife Champions can now put their learnings into practise at home.
If you want to find out how to manage or create ponds then head over to Freshwater Habitat’s Advice Centre.
Urban Wildlife Champion, Heather, said:
"Thank you so much Essex Wildlife Trust for putting together another excellent workshop for the UWCs! Our new committee is hoping to restore a number of pond sites across South Woodham Ferrers and this session was a perfect opportunity to learn from the experts and discuss our projects. We can't wait to get started and introduce the ponds plants we were kindly given to pot on and take home!"
Without Eat Natural’s funding, our third workshop would not have been possible, and we thank them for supporting us to create a Wilder Essex.
To find out what our Urban Wildlife Champions are up to, check out our Story Map:
