NORFOLK COAST GUARDIAN 2021


ACT FOR NATURE 11


Small tortoiseshell; Sydney Long, founder of the Trust (below) Swift in flight (left)


Restoring Norfolk’s forgotten farmland ponds


Carl Sayer and Helen Greaves on little pockets of biodiversity


N


orfolk abounds with ponds in its farmlands, many of which date back centuries. In fact, there are


currently at least 22,000 Norfolk ponds. Ponds were dug for livestock water- ing and used for soaking cart wheels. They were dug for clay to build houses and to extract marl, a limey clay used to improve soils. In some cases, ponds were used for keeping fish and for ‘retting’ hemp: steeping these plants in water to separate the useful fibre. In the past, ponds were much valued by local peo- ple and their management was a tradi- tional part of the farming calendar; like the maintenance of hedges, ponds were kept open to the sun by periodic tree and shrub removal. When in good condition, with clear


water and abundant wetland plants, despite their small size, ponds can sup- port huge numbers of species, includ- ing many national rarities. Dragonflies, amphibians, birds, mammals and even bats thrive in and around ponds. Nevertheless, in Norfolk, as all over lowland England, we have tended to treat ponds badly in recent decades. 8000 or more of the county’s ponds were lost after the 1950s, with nothing to sig- nify their existence except for ghostly crop marks and winter puddles. After the 1960s-70s era, due to many of the old uses of ponds disappearing, those ponds that remained became covered over with fast growing trees such as willow and alder, leading to dramatic losses of pond biodiversity.


Inspired by the late Richard Wad-


dingham, an enlightened local farmer, the Norfolk Ponds Project (NPP) was formed in 2014 with the central aim of pond restoration. Following the “Wad- dingham Method” the project has been


Taking a long view


Working with nature in a harmonious way is leading to habitat creation and greater natural diversity writes Robert Morgan


Coastal erosion is a dynamic and natural process that has seen the North Sea scrape and scour the shoreline, causing Norfolk’s coast to dramatically alter. For centuries people have endeavoured to defend against tides and surges but more battles are lost than won, and the fight against nature is ultimately futile. Norfolk Wildlife Trust understands this and has been carefully observing change in order to learn. At our coastal nature reserve at Cley Marshes, the sea has breached several times, and these occurrences will become more frequent with a changing climate. Wildlife along our coast is under


constant pressure from disturbance, so small ‘wild’ areas such as Cley act as an oasis; a quiet place for birds such as avocet, bittern, marsh harrier and bearded tit to feed and breed. Rising sea levels and the constant


bite of erosion will eventually rob these habitat specific species of their home. In a truly wild natural environment, unfettered by humanity, this process is in continuous flux, habitats change and develop through succession or in response to environmental events


such as flooding. Many involved in environmental protection are now taking a much longer view. Cley and our neighbouring Salthouse reserves are not naturally freshwater marshes. They were embanked in the seventeenth century to keep out the tides, thereby creating better grazing for livestock. The artificial banks have been maintained ever since, with the shingle ridge which runs across the north of the reserves bulldozed into tide-resisting shape each winter. However, over time,


clearing trees and scrub from ponds, especially opening up the south and west sides and then removing large amounts of leafy mud. The NPP has also been re- excavating the in-filled “ghost ponds” that haunt Norfolk’s fields and bring- ing them back to life. These restorations have been highly successful, and studies undertaken by University College Lon- don have shown a rapid recovery of wet- land plants and huge resulting benefits for aquatic diversity, extending to birds and even pollinators.


Exceptionally rare plants have been recorded at some ponds, including spe- cies thought to be extinct in Norfolk, such as the elegant, pink-flowered grass- poly, as well as the stunning water violet. And the secret to success is the incredible finding that the seeds from many wet- land plants can live for centuries in pond muds even when buried underneath cropped fields. Thus, plants lost from the landscape can re-appear because they were buried alive as seeds. So far the ponds project has restored over 200 old ponds and it is gaining momentum. Off the road between Fakenham and Holt you will see little clumps of trees out in the fields and most of these will


“


When by a pond, try being silent for a few moments and take in the


atmosphere.


have a pond inside awaiting restoration. Or look out for the recently restored vil- lage pond at Aylmerton, or the chain of wild species-filled ponds in the National Trust’s Sheringham Park. When by a pond, try being silent for a few moments and take in the atmos- phere. Ponds are magnets for wildlife and if you are stay still you will see birds feeding on emergent insects, bees and hoverflies sipping the nectar of wetland flowers and all sorts of species’ comings and goings. At dusk bats will replace the birds and deer will come out for a drink and a munch on the most luxuri- ant pond plants. As the great Richard Waddingham once said, water is life and healthy ponds are the most intimate and accessible way of seeing nature’s depend- ence on it.


Carl Sayers is a professor and Helen Greaves is a researcher at University College London. www.norfolkponds.org, Twitter: @norfolkponds. Tune into the “Ponds in the Night” Norfolk Ponds Project ‘Pondcast’ that will form part of the Norfolk Coast Partnership’s Dark Skies Festival. See p30.


Saltmarsh and sea lavender, north Norfolk


the Environment Agency concluded that this management was neither sustainable nor effective in the longer term and in 2007 ceased managing the ridge in this way such that it is returning to its natural profile. As a result, in time it is likely that the marshes will again become increasingly a mosaic of brackish and saltmarsh habitats. Saltmarsh is splendid habitat for


sea aster, for sea purslane, for wintering curlews and brent geese, for merlins and for redshank; but it is no good


for nesting if you are a rare bittern, bearded tit or marsh harrier. Under the European Commission Habitats Directive the Environment Agency was therefore obliged to create freshwater habitats elsewhere to compensate for their eventual loss at Salthouse and Cley. A compensatory wetland has been created in the Wissey Valley at Hilgay. The Norfolk Wildlife Trust has developed and managed the site on behalf of the Environment Agency and to date it is proving a success. Freshwater wetland specialities are moving in and reed bunting and sedge warbler are common; water vole and otter are present all year round, with both little and great white egret feeding at the site; in winter it is a haven for wildfowl. With proper habitat compensation


coastal erosion shouldn’t mean a loss of these important and magical places, only that nature is changing them as it always has. It is up to us to find space for nature to re-create and re-shape. Nature reserves shouldn’t be living museums, but dynamic, changing and vibrant spaces. Robert Morgan is NWT Reserves Officer.


Pat Adams


David Tipling


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