Tees Valley Biodiversity Partnership

The Tees Valley Pondscape was an initiative led by the Tees Valley Biodiversity Partnership and delivered by the Tees Valley Wildlife Trust, under project officer Rachel Jackson. The project worked towards readdressing the loss of ponds and their associated wildlife across the Tees Valley. The project is supported by Natural England’s Countdown 2010 fund, Esmee Fairbairn, Northumbrian Water Limited and the Environment Agency.

The project ran from October 2008 to March 2011

Tees Valley Pondscape…..

• Surveyed ponds and their associated wildlife, ranging from invertebrates, plants amphibians to birds and mammals.
• Created a comprehensive data base of ponds and pond life enabling pond work to be focused where it will have the greatest benefit to wildlife.
• Strategically created new high quality ponds using data on the Tees Valley Pondscape database and maps.
• Restored the ecological condition of some priority ponds so that they provide a high quality habitat for rare and vulnerable species.
• Provided information, advice and training on pond creation and management for landowners and managers. Much of this information is now available through this website.
• Created opportunities for volunteers and community groups to learn about ponds and help with wildlife surveys and practical conservation projects.
• Worked to secure the status and protection of key pond sites. This work is ongoing via Tees Valley Wildlife Trust, whose work supports many threatened habitats.

More information about the background and the objective of the project can be viewed below (written October 2008):

Background

Ponds are now UK national priority habitat in recognition of the value for freshwater life and their decline and fragmentation in the British landscape.

The Tees Valley “Pondscape” project proposal was initiated by the Tees Valley Biodiversity Partnership’s Wetland and Coastal Action Group to assist the delivery of the Ponds, lakes and reservoirs Habitat Action Plan (2009-2013) for the Tees Valley LBAP.

Project Summary

This project will qualify and quantify the pond resource in the Tees Valley to produce a pondscape database that will identify ponds that meet national priority pond status. It will create a strategic framework for pond designation, creation and management of ponds that is based on principles of managing ponds as ecological clusters in a landscape setting. It will begin to reverse the long-term trend of pond loss in the Tees Valley by creating new high value ponds that will Increase connectivity between ponds and other freshwater habitats and restoring ecological condition of ponds. This will benefit metapopulations of freshwater invertebrates, amphibians, birds, bats and other mammals. The project will bring an increased understanding of the conservation importance of the Tees Valley Pondscape and influence and engage a wide range of Stakeholders in best practices of pond creation and management.

The project aims are:

• To quantify and qualify the ecological pond resource in the Tees Valley and identify ponds that meets the criteria for classification as a national priority pond under the new national Pond Habitat Action Plan.
• To strategically create new high quality ponds using the Tees Valley Pondscape data.
• To restore ecological condition of priority ponds so that they provide a high quality habitat for associated species
• This project will work to enhance the status and protection of a selection of priority ponds.
• To provide pond habitats for BAP species focusing on water vole and great crested newt

Sources of funding

This will be a three year project with a project budget is £204,000. An application to Defra’s Countdown 2010 in July 2008 for 50% of the projects cost was successful in October 2008. The project will be managed by the Tees Valley Wildlife Trust on behalf of the Tees Valley Biodiversity Partnership. The conditions of this grant award are that the first third of the project must be delivered by April 2009. Match funding for the firs year has been secured with A Landfill Communities fund to the Tees Valley wildlife Trust and volunteer time. £60,400 of match funding is still required for years two and three of the project. An application to the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation is being submitted in October 2008. The Pond Conservation Trust is delivering a national pond project funded mainly by Tubnee. The Tees Valley project will work to compliment this national project. Discussions are currently underway with the Pond Conservation Trust and Natural England to investigate if their funding can be counted as match funding. If this is not possible the national project will act to further increase biodiversity action on ponds in the Tees Valley.

An application to the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation will also enable to objectives of the project to be expanded beyond that of the Defra application. This will add a community involvement and public engagement aspect to the initiative.

Details of Defra application

Project aims

Aim 1: To quantify and qualify the ecological pond resource in the Tees Valley and identify ponds that meets the criteria for classification as a national priority pond under the new national Pond Habitat Action Plan. The Tees Valley Biodiversity partnership has collated pond distribution data on a GIS system and extensive records of amphibians in the Tees Valley have been collated. These will form the basis for a Tees Valley spatial and qualitative pondscape audit with extensive additional data collation, desk surveys and site surveys. This will be used to identify ponds that meet the priority pond criteria using a combination of the five criteria;

1. Habitats of international importance,

2. Species of high conservation importance,

3. Exceptional assemblages of key biotic groups,

4. Ponds of high ecological value

5. Other important ponds.

This will be one of the first pondscape surveys that will translate the national priority pond criterion to a sub-regional scale. Criterion 4, Ponds of high ecological value is assessed using the Predictive System for Multimetrics (PSYM). This method is too expensive and time consuming for widespread pond surveys.  A quantitative evaluation of decline and qualitative assessment of pond condition of over 200 ponds in Redcar and Cleveland borough in the Tees Valley was carried out by Durham University in 2004. This used a variety of physical, chemical, biological and landuse features to describe pond quality. This included a simplified invertebrate scoring system referred to as the Sexton method.  In this project this system will be compared to the PSYM method to evaluate its use as a relatively quick and simple indicator of pond quality. This will enable ponds to be considered in a landscape context, their relationship within clusters of ponds and with other semi natural vegetation especially wetlands so that pond creation and restoration can be targeted in a strategic way. The data will be provided to the National Pond Monitoring Network for their evolving National Ponds database and the new North East Regional Records Centre

Aim 2: To strategically create new high quality ponds using the Tees Valley Pondscape data. Ponds are temporary habitats undergoing natural successional change. Each seral stage has an ecological value. Newly created ponds will be located to increase connectivity between ponds, to link other wetland habitats, to enhance clusters of late successional ponds and to provide ponds for associated BAP species. Surrounding land use influences the ecological quality of Ponds. Continued intensification of land use has led to a progressive decline in the ecological quality of the pond stock within Britain (Pond Conservation Trust data). This was also found in the study of Redcar and Cleveland ponds. To reverse this trend new ponds need to be carefully designed and sited using a targeted approach so that the land use is carefully considered.

This project is compatible with the 50 year vision for England’s Wetlands (July 2008) and will directly contribute to realizing the 50 year Pond Vision map in the Tees Valley area by i) close proximity to other ponds ii) close proximity to BAP species associated with ponds iii) close to the river channel iv) contributing to the mosaic of existing wetlands.  In the Tees Valley there are opportunities to locate ponds on brownfield and industrial sites with INCA (Industry and Nature Conservation Association), which do not have the same level of nutrient enrichment issues.  The project will also influence landowners and managers in the creation of high quality of ponds through disseminating best practice material (which is currently being produced by the Pond Conservation Trust) and training opportunities.

Aim 3: To restore ecological condition of priority ponds so that they provide a high quality habitat for associated species. Although the creation of new ponds adjacent to late successional ponds is a recognised way of conserving the biodiversity associated with ponds it is often not practical though lack of available land or the need to conserve a pond for historical, cultural or amenity reasons. In these cases some priority ponds will require habitat management to maintain their biodiversity interest.   Ponds will be selected for habitat management work or works to improve water quality by evaluation of the Tees Valley Pondscape audit data. In 1989 English Nature, Pond Action and the NRA published a guide to managing a Guide to managing ponds for Wildlife. This guide and publication by Biggs et al of an article in British Wildlife in 1994 was the first time that advice for pond management was based on ecological principles and led to a new approach to managing ponds. However many ponds are still managed with a lack of understanding of their ecological value in a way that is detrimental to biodiversity. This project will spread awareness and understanding of landowners and managers. The Tees Valley Biodiversity Partnership is ideally placed to carry out these activities with active members from local authorities, statutory environmental agencies and voluntary sector organisations. All owners or managers of priority ponds identified in the pondscape audit will receive information and advice on retaining and /or enhancing the biodiversity interest of their ponds. Where ponds do not meet priority pond status, but have potential for improvements from alteration in management practices advice will offer.

Aim 4; This project will work to enhance the status and protection of a selection of priority ponds. The Tees Valley Biodiversity partnership has produced a set of guidelines for the selection of Local Sites. They have been developed in full consultation with members of the group and also in order to comply with government guidelines as set out in PPS 9 Nature Conservation and Defra’s Local Sites Guidance. The TVPB is currently organising the survey and reappraisal of local sites against these criteria. However the process has struggled with the criteria and data to select ponds as Local Sites. This project will formulate selection criteria for Tees Valley Local Sites, which will be a subset of priority ponds, identified. This information will also inform local authorities in the correct management of pond local sites, which will assist them in meeting local indicator 197, the management of Local Sites and their biodiversity duty under section 40 of the NERC Act. (2006).

The project will work through the Tees Valley Biodiversity Partnership to inform and encourage development control planning Officers in the Tees Valley in pond mitigation work to fulfill their obligations under PPS9 and assist local planning authorities in meeting their duties under the NERC Act in relation to Priority Ponds It will assist by being able to provide data to base planning decisions and seek opportunities to create new high quality ponds through mitigation projects.

Aim 5: To provide pond habitats for BAP species focusing on water vole and great crested newt. The Tees Wildlife Trust in partnership with the Environment Agency has carried out extensive river and beck survey and habitat management work for water voles. As a result water voles are thriving in some parts of the Tees Valley. Although slow moving watercourses provide the main habitat of water voles they are known to make use of ponds where they are have high connectivity within pond clusters and other wetland habitats. The Tees Valley pondscape data will be able to predict ponds with the greatest likelihood of water vole habitat suitability which will be used to base water vole site surveys and habitat management work and pond creation to maintain and extend the range and linkages of water vole habitats.

Pond creation and management work will seek to create complexes to facilitate the maintenance of metapopulations of great crested newts and other amphibian species.

Project outcomes

Outcome 1: The Pondscape audit will provide robust information on the distribution and ecological quality of ponds in the Tees Valley in relation to other landscape and habitat features. This will be on a Recorder and GIS format that is compatable with the developing North East Records Centre. This will identity ponds of national priority and provide landscape scale information to inform pond management, creation and protection. Evaluation of methodologies used to evaluate ponds will be produced that will be useful to other LBAP projects.

Outcome 2: 30 new ponds will be directly created in a range of urban, industrial and rural locations in the Tees Valley that will be located to reduce the isolation and fragmentation of the subregional pondscape. These ponds will also help to maintain and extend functional metapopulations of key BAP species including water voles and amphibians. Understanding and knowledge amongst partners in the Tees Valley Biodiversity partnership and will be enhanced so that additional pond creation opportunities will fit into a strategic programme. This outcome will contribute to the National Pond HAP to target 4 “Create new ponds sites of high quality potential”.

Outcome 3: 30 ponds will be restored to favourable ecological condition by habitat management /water quality improvements works. In addition landowners and managers of all priority ponds identified will receive written advice on retaining or enhancing biodiversity interest.  A wide range of landowners and managers in the Tees Valley will have a greater understanding and practical knowledge of the ecologically sensitive management of ponds through engagement with a targeted 40 organsiations/landowners, and a range of training opportunities. This outcome will contribute to the National Pond HAP to target 3 “Restore pond sites to priority status and deliver Species Action Plan targets”.

Outcome 4: The Tees Valley will have a selection of priority ponds designated as Local sites using robust local scientific criteria. Local authorities and other landowners will receive targeted advice on managing the biodiversity of these ponds. Local authorities will have a greater understanding of their duties relation to Priority ponds as a national Biodiversity Priority Habitat. This outcome will contribute to the National Pond HAP to target 1 “Maintain the number of priority ponds “.

Outcome 5: The pond audit information will provide a higher level of data on the location and distribution of BAP species associated with Ponds in the Tees Valley, especially water vole and great crested newts. Pond creation, management work and ecological advise to landowners and managers will be carried to the create and maintain a pondscape that will benefit a wide range of pond biodiversity, focusing on BAP priority species