Bringing 'ghost' and 'zombie' ponds back from the dead

[@GlynTaylor-i9f]

Wonderful idea to bring back all those lost ponds. Ponds really are wildlife oases. I’m pleased that the land owners and farmers are willing to give up small areas of land for such big environmental benefits. These guys deserve a big grant from Environmental Land Management schemes or lottery funding.

[@kimrocksthetrees]

Please go back to these ponds next year & give us an update.

[@ironimp1]

Carl was kind enough to visit my farm in Norfolk to advise on how to care and restore my ponds. His enthusiasm and excitement has infected me and made me an advocate for ponds and pond life. There is no money that could replace the reward of taking a dead silted pond to a vibrant life sustaining oasis, which happens in the short space of one to two years. Everyone should have a pond for their own wellbeing. (I hope Carl reads this as I want him to know how grateful I am, thanks Carl)

[@PondLab]

Ive been to see one of these ponds (and helped out a little bit with restoring one) a few years ago. It was one of the best and most biodiverse ponds I've ever seen. Its an amazing project and Im happy to hear they are starting similar projects in Essex :)

[@DB-ub3wx]

This was incredible to watch! Please do more on this ❤

[@stuwightman4855]

Fantastic work love it!

[@jackstone4291]

“Got dragonflies coming through there” Camera cuts to damselfly ….

[@Pam501]

Brilliant work - keep keeping onwards - nature needs support at this moment in time!

[@JeffBilkins]

Interesting how landscape pond restoration is different from beavers ponds, streams or wetlands.

[@danonychus]

That's cos beaver wetland ponds are a specific type of pond. There are many forms of ponds in europe supporting different ecosystems

[@Seawing-v5d]

I'd like to see an after restoration video of these ponds once they start to come back.

[@tomt637]

This is a great video, so much information and full of points that show how we need to change for the better. I will say that living in Suffolk and doing lots of groundwork and farming in Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire. Many of these ghost ponds (just from the pre-digging indicators of the ground conditions) might not have been ponds but instead pits from quarrying chalk, flint and blue clay over the years many of these will have been infilled as landfills as they are absolutely full to the brim with bottles, jars, bones and all sorts of rubbish from the time. Granted many of those pits would have then been converted into ponds and then form that ghost pond effect anyway, but not all of them. If any groundworkers are reading this, avoid digging these spots if trenching, percolation testing or checking groundwater levels

[@oldbatwit5102]

That my be true of some though I also lived in Suffolk in the 60's and 70's and most farms had a pond or ponds, often called tanks. These were very old and I believe they were built to provide a source of water for animals before the farms had piped water or mechanical pumps in wells. I fished quite a few of them. Oddly... a number were on high ground so can't have been filled by rainwater alone.

[@mikeycbaby]

I would love to see this last pond restoration sight in a year.

[@henchy3rd]

This is highly rewarding to know that we are helping nature to thrive. When we were kids(70s/80s) we often went pond dipping with net & jar. You name it we found it & we always put them back. Unfortunately the Alvaston(Derby) bypass put paid to them. I can tell you the disgusting underhand goings on that happens beforehand.. all the holes in the tree’s were filled with expanding foam so bats & birds couldn’t roost/nest.. they denied everything? Also said they could uproot the ponds & move them, even though there were protected species galore in said area. They also moved the green belt & now 1,000’s of houses have been built on prime farming land.

[@Debbie-henri]

Something similar happened where I once lived. There were old gravel pits in an area of meadow. I knew of it's existence, but it had been fenced off because of the gravel pits. Anyway, it was sold for development, and a friend told me how there were all sorts of flowers that he didn't recognise and thought they might be rare. Since I had some experience in conservation, I went down there one night with him, and found Orchids, Helleborines, and the gravel pits themselves were full of pond life. I took some examples of plants to 'someone in authority,' who contacted the council and warned them that they risked destroying rare plants. The council denied it all, saying they'd used the services of an expert, who told them nothing worthwhile lived there. Next day, a team of earthmoving vehicles arrived and filled in the lot, killing birds, animals, fish, rare plants and trees under tons of Earth, adding masses of landfill rubbish amongst it. Among the dead were a lot of beautiful, huge, brightly patterned Koi Carp, which had been dropped there, or hatched from eggs (left by herons stealing from the former Koi farm nearby). Some of these fish had to be worth thousands each. They were incredible. Indeed, the larger Koi, if they had been captured and sold by the council, would have brought them millions in profit, and could have continued to bring in a lot of revenue - there was that many of them. The infilling of these pits was a disgusting spectacle to watch. Councils will do anything for a quick and easy bribe. The welfare of wildlife is nothing when cold, hard cash is offered.

[@abcdjkx]

Expanding foam? that's sickening, I didn't know they went to such lengths to destroy wildlife.

[@MaryObi-v5d]

That "leaf litter" is fertilizer gold.

[@majorbruster5916]

Yes. Leaf litter does not necessarily de-oxygenate the water. I have been raising chironomids, daphnia, cyclops, ostracods, chaoborus, tubifex and other oligochaetes in large tubs full of leaf litter for years. There are more variables at work here than what are discussed.

[@juliamarsh2077]

Amazing. I am curious to know what landowners think of this initiative? Are they all keen to do this?

[@naumacia]

This was brilliant :)

[@joseenoel8093]

Congrats from Montréal, Qc, I majored in sylviculture, re-wilding rocks!

[@ConstantChaos1]

That black mud is also great for field ammendment

[@lemoulindepensol7691]

Great video.

[@martinelongum9921]

Wonderfull !😊

[@howaboutataste]

By definition, bare hands are NOT tools. Second, everyone was wearing gloves for the work. Thirdly, gloves ARE tools.

[@gedelgo3242]

It's nice to see that these ponds don't have white rings of excess fertilizer like where I live.

[@kariannstickle2708]

Y’all. 4:37 Newts wrap their eggs in peppermint leaves for safety. Newts. Fold. Their. Eggs. Into. Peppermint. Leaves.

[@jamestoday2239]

Ponds are ace!!

[@juliamarsh2077]

Could those tree stumps be replanted elsewhere? They appear to have good root systems or would they be too traumatised to grow again? What happens to all that leaf litter, and branches, how are they utilised?

[@steverobbins4274]

I know a pond that is perfect for this. It is over grown. its above a river and it has fresh running water going into it from a spring. Cant remember the name of the village for sure but I believe its East Bilney.

[@TheUnhousedWanderer]

Sounds like a bog to me. What's wrong with bogs?

[@digabledoug]

Very cool. Digging out ancient ponds, I would be on the lookout for artifacts and human remains. You never know what lies under a couple of centuries worth of muck. That pile of mud and decomposing leaves would make great compost. Do they just leave it there? It's nice that they leave the tree limbs for animal habitat but I don't know if the farmer would appreciate a pile of tree limbs and mud pile left in his field. It might attract the sort of animals the farmer would not like eating his crops. Why not just get a wood chipper in and chip the whole lot into mulch to sell and offset the money spent on the restoration project.

[@juliamarsh2077]

Have you discovered plant species that have died out completely, when growing those seeds in tanks? are you looking at how the plants that exist in closeby mature ponds compare to the ones that are grown from seeds that were buried over a hundred years ago?

[@abcdjkx]

Wonderful work. Seeds surviving centuries and millennia- miracles of God's creation.

[@natural8677]

i hope they come to Hampshire and Wiltshire. So much water in the fields which then is left to dry up or drain away. its so mice to see ducks and herons in the fields when they fill up so its a shame

[@suzannehaigh4281]

What is the point when the goverment will just build on the land for the "necessary" homes

[@RussTillling]

Why have farmers, etc done this, and how can we encourage them to a) stop doing it, and b) restore ghost ponds?

[@majorbruster5916]

Farmers filled the ponds in when stock drinking troughs fed from mains water supplies became cheaply available. Also, the shift from cattle farming to purely arable farming made the ponds redundant, so they were filled in to enable farm machinery to run in straight lines. Many hedges were also ripped up for the same reason.

[@andrewbunting1460]

That imm African Jacana ~ 2.27 is definitely a first for Norfolk and the UK.... always an issue when film makers don't understand the subject. Good documentary otherwise.

[@adamriley3030]

go way

[@Tellhimhesdead-m1y]

Habitat destruction and building on greenbelt is the cause of the decline in wildlife.

[@natural8677]

14:10 blood worms.. very low oxygen

[@iladanuengkota5120]

Living space

[@HennyWho_7]

He he lol….i Like the names go peace WWF_4life

[@kidsgrove-spider8405]

Can you not just crop the trees back instead of completely clearing them? We need these old trees.

[@weegiewarbler]

Nice vid. Dont know the presenter, but such daft and banal questions. Maybe it was the script writer, but dear gods.

[@noanyobiseniss7462]

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