Dipping into conservation

It aims to establish a database of as many as possible of the ponds that exist in the county and to do this needed to recruit people with a particular knowledge of, and interest in, their own community.

Where better to find such a source of information than in members of Women's Institute branches, who are generally people with this close link with their local neighbourhoods.

In asking the Oxfordshire Federation of WIs to assist in the initial pilot survey, Pond Conservation was going back to its roots, for their organisation was one of several which has been asked to share in its founding, back in 1987.

The project was launched last autumn, and the first phase is just coming to its conclusion.

In October, the presidents of each branch were invited to a meeting at which Rod d'Ayala, ponds officer for the Thames Valley, explained the project. They took away with them survey forms to distribute to their own members.

Their returns will serve a dual purpose, in identifying the ponds that exist in each village or urban area, and as guidance as to whether the initial style of the survey form will be the best format to be used when the survey is extended more widely.

Other groups have already been making contributions, including the very active and enthusiastic Woodcote Conservation Volunteers, in the south of Oxfordshire. They have a major pond project of their own, but have already taken an active part in the Parish Pond Survey by distributing a similar questionnaire to that of the WIs to every household in the village.

From the responses, the group's co-ordinator Karen Woolley and her colleagues were able to draw up a return of the number of ponds that exist in their areas. One is in a public open space but the majority were in private gardens, some natural and some created by gardeners of the family. Some details were also available of wildlife present in each.

Information about the inhabitants of the ponds is a major feature of the Parish Pond Survey. The WI members were asked to indicate whether any of a list of species were present in the ponds they were recording, and also the types of floating or submerged plants and grasses growing in the water.

Species likely to be benefiting from pond habitat are waterfowl such as ducks and moorhens, insects such as damsel flies and dragonflies, mammals such as water voles and the amphibians, frogs, toads and various species of newts.

The survey form asks for a sketch map, indicating water levels, major areas of vegetation, surrounding features such as woodland, roads or fences and the specific locations of any particularly interesting species.

Other information which can be added is the approximate age of the pond, if known, whether it tends to dry up in summer, what is its water source, whether, if it is on agricultural land, it is used by livestock and of what kind, at any time of the year, and if it has been known to suffer pollution or to have become cluttered with discarded rubbish.

How much of the pond is covered by vegetation and how much of its area is shaded by its surroundings also add to the useful information.

Of particular interest is whether or not there are other ponds or lakes nearby and how far distant, as the same creatures may be making use of both.

Among WI branches making an early start on their surveys was that at Chadlington. There, one of the members was able to report on a pond known to be only about six years old, but which, since it was created, has resulted in the private gardens in which it was dug being visited by many garden birds, by herons, and also occasionally by adders and grass snakes. The bed of the pond is reported to be rich in invertebrates and there are all manner of plant species, watermint, rushes and marsh marigolds.

At Warborough and Shillingford WI, which also has members from Stadhampton, there is an interesting pond which they are looking forward to surveying. This is one that is in grounds formerly surrounding a now-disappeared house of the 17th-century, and they have permission to pay it a visit.

As many ponds in the area will be on private property, it has been a case of contacting fellow residents and asking if their ponds can be included in the survey. This is even more the situation in urban areas where there are also WI branches. One city branch that is contributing to its findings is the Walton Manor branch in Oxford.

"There are some wonderful ponds here," says the branch's founder, Jane Finnerty. "Each of our members has been asked to write down where they know of a pond and how big it is. If I know of people who have one in their garden, I have been asking if I may visit it as they may not necessarily be WI members."

She feels that in this respect Oxford has been benefiting from its new developments.

"We are getting new ponds where people are putting in water features," she points out,"These are all-important for wildlife."

In a more rural area, Goring branch vice-president Nina Hewitt has a pond in her garden which she and her husband created about 20 years ago, and which has brought them much pleasure since, in seeing it enjoyed by visiting wildlife. It is a breeding ground for frogs and newts, dragonflies flit over the surface and visiting herons eye the fish, but are prevented from taken them by a net covering.

This is an impressive pond, with a waterfall and fountain and a safety feature of a raised barrier of netting which allows the frogs to hop in and out, but prevents wildlife such as hedgehogs from falling in when coming for a drink.

'Our pond has quite a lot of life in it," says Nina, "and we enjoy sitting in the garden in the summer and watching it. I think ponds are so essential."

The information from the pilot survey and from subsequent data collection will bring better conservation of ponds in the future, in enabling consideration of whether different management could improve their biodiversity, and, in other situations, protecting them from any threat of pollution.

"Ponds have, in the past, been very much neglected and overlooked," says Rod d'Ayala. "They used to be regarded as small and unimportant, but we now know differently."

Once a record is available of where ponds exist, any necessary action can be taken to support them, he adds.

"If we don't know about the present of a pond, we are not able to be aware if there may be problems there."

The parish survey is setting out to find out more about just how many there are, where they are, what they are like and what lives in them.

This link with the Oxfordshire Federation has given the scope for a countywide coverage, says Rod, adding to the work being carried out by local conservation groups, and bringing a major improvement on present knowledge.

Pond Conservation is a registered charity which provides a national focus for conserving ponds and all freshwater habitats.

It was when it began as a pond action research team in 1988 - leading to the establishment of the charity in 1998 - that the WI movement, and others with an interest in the environment, were first involved.

Pond Conservation's policy and research team has accumulated ecological information that is now of great importance at both national and international level. Research staff undertake surveys for practical projects and provide technical training and advice.

Another of its projects is Ponds for People, giving community groups the technical and practical skills to create, manage and conserve ponds and contributing to local habitat action plans for pond and wetland habitats, from both a practical and educational aspect.

It aims to stimulate increased public knowledge, understanding and participation in environmental issues.

Pond Conservation's Thames Valley area base at Oxford Brookes University is one of four throughout the country, the others being in the North-West, North-East and Wales.