These are adapted from New Approaches to the Management of Ponds (Biggs J, Corfield A, Walker D, Whitfield M and Williams P, 1994), and challenge some of the conventional advice on pond management.
- Fluctuating water levels are beneficial, as some organisms rely on the zone between high and low water level. Drying out is not necessarily disastrous for pond communities.
- Ponds do not need to be deep. Shallow ponds no deeper than one metre are valuable habitats.
- A pond does not have to include all the aquatic zones, from deep open water to shallow margins, and annual maintenance to retain this variety is not necessary.
- Ponds do not need to be big, and even tiny ponds can be valuable.
- Shady ponds are not lifeless.
- ‘Choked’ or ‘overgrown’ ponds support a complex and valuable community, built up over decades, and digging them out may reduce their value. It is better, if the space is available, to dig another nearby.
- Limited access by livestock can be beneficial.
- Ponds are not self-contained systems, but need sympathetically managed buffer zones around them of wetland, rough grass, shrubs, woods and other habitats.
Ponds can be defined as small bodies of water from one square metre up to two hectares in area, which usually hold water for at least four months of the year. For invertebrate interest, any water body that holds water long enough to allow the development of at least one generation of at least one invertebrate species can be valuable. Thus minor features such as vehicle ruts, depressions and hoofprints can be valuable wetland habitat, though not definable as ponds.
Temporary ponds which hold water for only part of the year are paradoxically more stable in the long term than ‘permanent’ ponds with constant water levels. This is because the seasonal drying out holds back the succession, by suppressing emergent vegetation, and allowing accumulated silt to dry out and blow away.
The following is not a prescription for creating a pond, but rather a list of factors to be discussed and ideas to be thought about. Most ponds which are created by conservation groups are for a combination of wildlife, educational and amenity value, and because involving people is high on The Conservation Volunteers’ agenda, intermittent or annual management is seen as a benefit. The general theme of this chapter is therefore about ponds managed for these values, but much of the information is also relevant for ponds created for other purposes such as flood control or water supply, and ponds which result from industrial activities, and for which frequent management may be less desirable.
