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)
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.
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 :)
Hi, I'm a wetland scientist and geologist and was thinking about something you said. The leaf litter sludge from the zombie pond you said you spread on the surrounding fields. That sludge will contain an awful lot of the seedbank from the pond and once you find the pond boundaries, it might be a great idea to pile the sludge and litter into mounds around the boundaries. This would allow the surface run-off to still flow to the pond whilst keeping the seeds within closer to where they can re-establish.
This was heartwarming. I used to go fishing with my farther and a lot of ponds in my area of Lancashire have been filled in to put factory units on. One moment full of life and the next day bulldozed over filled with living species....Sad! Thankyou too everybody doing their bit for nature and this planet.
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.
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
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.
2:30. 73% wildlife populations lost in the last 50 yrs... Let this sink in for the next generations we are in the 6th mass extinction of our planet this time because of humanity. The tragedy of commons, is an ecological principle that describes our oceans fate as well.
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?
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.
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?
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.
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
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.
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.
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)
Brilliant. He came across as unbelievably knowledgeable. Norfolk is very lucky to have him.
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.
Please go back to these ponds next year & give us an update.
Well they sort of did
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 :)
Fantastic work love it!
Hi, I'm a wetland scientist and geologist and was thinking about something you said. The leaf litter sludge from the zombie pond you said you spread on the surrounding fields. That sludge will contain an awful lot of the seedbank from the pond and once you find the pond boundaries, it might be a great idea to pile the sludge and litter into mounds around the boundaries. This would allow the surface run-off to still flow to the pond whilst keeping the seeds within closer to where they can re-establish.
Brilliant work - keep keeping onwards - nature needs support at this moment in time!
From West Virginia, USA here. I really enjoyed watching this video. Keep up the good work!
“Got dragonflies coming through there”
Camera cuts to damselfly ….
Hate them things
Interesting how landscape pond restoration is different from beavers ponds, streams or wetlands.
That's cos beaver wetland ponds are a specific type of pond. There are many forms of ponds in europe supporting different ecosystems
I'd like to see an after restoration video of these ponds once they start to come back.
This was heartwarming. I used to go fishing with my farther and a lot of ponds in my area of Lancashire have been filled in to put factory units on. One moment full of life and the next day bulldozed over filled with living species....Sad!
Thankyou too everybody doing their bit for nature and this planet.
Watching from Australia but I was a pond enthusiast in my English youth 60 years ago. Well done, I wish this had been going on going on in my day.!!
That "leaf litter" is fertilizer gold.
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.
I would love to see this last pond restoration sight in a year.
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
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.
This was incredible to watch! Please do more on this ❤
That black mud is also great for field ammendment
Excellent! This is important work.
This was brilliant :)
Amazing. I am curious to know what landowners think of this initiative? Are they all keen to do this?
Congrats from Montréal, Qc, I majored in sylviculture, re-wilding rocks!
Great video.
Wonderfull !😊
By definition, bare hands are NOT tools.
Second, everyone was wearing gloves for the work.
Thirdly, gloves ARE tools.
2:30. 73% wildlife populations lost in the last 50 yrs... Let this sink in for the next generations we are in the 6th mass extinction of our planet this time because of humanity. The tragedy of commons, is an ecological principle that describes our oceans fate as well.
It's nice to see that these ponds don't have white rings of excess fertilizer like where I live.
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?
Ponds are ace!!
That lady was out of breath by the 2nd min 😂
Sounds like a bog to me. What's wrong with bogs?
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.
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?
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.
Y’all. 4:37 Newts wrap their eggs in peppermint leaves for safety. Newts. Fold. Their. Eggs. Into. Peppermint. Leaves.
Habitat destruction and building on greenbelt is the cause of the decline in wildlife.
Easier way to determine the life of the seeds is to count the rings of the biggest tree that they chopped down.
This would be my most perfect job. I would love to see the results for wildlife afterwards.
Jacana????
Wonderful work. Seeds surviving centuries and millennia- miracles of God's creation.
Like all water ways they need maintenance or they just silt up .
What is the point when the goverment will just build on the land for the "necessary" homes
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
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.
go way
Why have farmers, etc done this, and how can we encourage them to a) stop doing it, and b) restore ghost ponds?
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.
Can you not just crop the trees back instead of completely clearing them? We need these old trees.
14:10 blood worms.. very low oxygen
Living space
He he lol….i Like the names go peace WWF_4life
Repost
Nice vid. Dont know the presenter, but such daft and banal questions. Maybe it was the script writer, but dear gods.
So terrible brainwashed robots!