NEW APPROACHES TO THE MANAGEMENT OF PONDS

Abstract

P ond management is one of the most popular practical conservation tasks, and throughout Britain thousands of ponds are regularly dredged, desilted and cleaned out. Yet remarkably little is known about the effects of management on ponds. Over the last six years, Pond Action has undertaken a wide range of survey work on ponds in the course of a number of projects, including the Oxfordshire Pond Survey and the National Pond Survey. This article presents some of the first results of this work and suggests how, in the light of new information, many existing pond management techniques could be improved.