Help your local wildlife - Create a garden pond

11/03/2009 16:37:13 Froglife says - Just Add Water
March 2009. An estimated three to four million blobs of frogspawn will be laid in the UK's ponds by the end of spring. Now, a national wildlife charity is trying to raise this number by encouraging garden owners to ‘dig for Britain', and provide new homes for the UK's breeding amphibians.

Pond numbers in the UK's countryside have dropped sharply; one third of ponds are thought to have disappeared in the last fifty years or so. This has had an enormous impact on wildlife, particularly amphibians. But Just Add Water, a new campaign launched by Froglife, is hoping to help lessen the impact to Britain's biodiversity by encouraging people to dig ponds closer to homes, in the UK's towns and cities.

Stop Amphibians disappearing
These new ponds, it is hoped, will provide new breeding places for some of the UK's widespread amphibians, many of which are thought to be disappearing in some regions.

Quick colonisers
Some species, like the Common Frog and Smooth Newt, are known to colonise new ponds quickly if present locally. Common Toad is also known to frequent garden ponds, particular larger ones. Yet many of these species are disappearing from sites across the UK, often driven by loss of crucial breeding ponds.

The Common Toad is now listed on the Government's Biodiversity Action Plan (UKBAP) ‘watchlist' due to recent declines.

How to build a pond
Just Add Water will provide information to the public on how to build ponds, through a new advice booklet and website (www.froglife.org/justaddwater ).

"85% of the UK population have gardens, and many of these can be made frog-friendly by adding a pond." said Daniel Piec, Froglife's Head of Conservation. "Within months, ponds often become an oasis for local wildlife - providing feeding and breeding grounds for a host of amphibians, and many important invertebrates, mammals and birds."

"What we're calling for is for gardeners to put down the trowel, reach for the spade and get digging." said Mr Piec.
The Just Add Water campaign is centred around a new booklet called ‘Just Add Water - how to build a wildlife pond'. The free booklet offers advice on a variety of subjects: from what shape to dig, how deep to go, and where to get the water; to technical advice on making ponds safe for young children.

The Just Add Water campaign is supported by a number of organisations including The Environment Agency, the UK government agency concerned mainly with flood risk and water resource management and environmental protection, but which also has a key role to play in promoting conservation of water and wetland wildlife.

Alastair Driver, the National Conservation Manager for the Agency said "Ponds are very special places for wildlife and for people, but so many have fallen rapidly into disrepair due to bad design. The expert guidance in this excellent leaflet can change all that, and we are sure it will ‘spawn' many new frog habitats that are built to last!"
For further details on Just Add Water visit: www.froglife.org/justaddwater

Five amphibians that will benefit through the Like all amphibians the Smooth Newt breeds in water but spends much of the rest of the year on land. Smooth newts are the most widespread UK newt species - found throughout many urban areas, particularly near allotments. The Palmate Newt can be hard to distinguish from the Smooth Newt. To tell them apart look for the ‘boxing glove' hind feet and odd looking tail filament - these are breeding traits of Palmate Newt males (March - June). The Great Crested Newt is one of the UK's largest, and rarest, amphibians. Across much of Europe, Great crested newts have suffered enormous declines - driven largely by pond loss through agricultural intensification. The species (and its habitats) are protected in the UK.

Just Add Water campaign: Common Frog: The Common Frog is the UK's most widespread amphibian. Like all amphibians it breeds in water but spends much of the rest of the year on land - normally up to 500 metres away from a pond. Common Frogs will often colonise new ponds very quickly - sometimes within months. The Common Toad is declining in the UK and is not as common as it once was. Unlike the Common Frog, Common toads are very specific about their breeding ponds, preferring larger, open ponds (often with fish) to smaller ponds. Many toad populations have suffered local extinction due to pond loss, and developing roads and infrastructure.