Pond restoration project helps resurrect wildlife

Landscape recovery boosts habitats

Water management for wildlife will be a key topic when farmers and conservationists meet for a special conference next month in Norfolk.

Sustainable agriculture, landscape recovery and pond restoration will topic the agenda when the North Norfolk Coastal Group (NNCG) Farming and Nature Conference takes place on Friday, 22 September, on the Sandringham estate.

Speakers from the Norfolk Coast Partnership’s landscape recovery project will outline their plans for chalk river restoration and species recovery via its North Norfolk: Wilder, Wetter, Better for Nature initiative..

Water for Wildlife

Carl Sayer and Helen Greaves, from University College London, will give a talk to the Water for Wildlife iniaitive and the Norfolk Ponds Project, which aims to restore, resurrect and conserve the county’s ponds.

Mapping what is one of the UK’s driest areas is key to work being done by farmers and conservationists. This will be covered in talks by Norfolk County Council’s Daniel Voicey and Dan Geerah of Land App.

They will show how to tap into past maps, predict future trends and identify appropriate areas on the farm for various land uses – highlighting how the value of high quality mapping is becoming increasingly recognised.

Speakers will include Paul Dolman, professor of conservation ecology at the University of East Anglia’s School of Environmental Sciences. Professor Dolman works with James Gilroy and Liam Crowther to conduct biodiversity audits.

The audits quantify priority species and analyse their management needs to give clear guidance to farmers, conservation practitioners and land managers looking to support biodiversity in managed landscapes.

Becky Banks, andscape recovery officer at Norfolk Rivers Trust, leads on engaging with land managers in the area and developing the survey work and land management plans.

Carl Sayer, professor of limnology and freshwater ecology, leads the pond restoration group at University College London. A director of the Norfolk Ponds Project, he specialises in freshwater habitat restoration.

Research by freshwater ecologist Helen Greaves is currently focusing on the variability of greenhouse gas emissions from overgrown neglected ponds in comparison to restored ponds, for the EU-Horizon 2020 ‘Ponderful’ project.

Ms Greaves develops and implements projects that aim to engage landowners and the public with pond conservation and restoration. She is also secretary of the European Pond Conservation Network – which encorages policies that restore ponds.

For further information or to book
a place at the conference, visit
nncg.org.uk.