Chess Priority Ponds

The protection and enhancements of ponds should be core in any catchment restoration project. They are critical ecosystem engineers, supporting two-thirds of freshwater species and – at landscape scale – more biodiversity than larger waterbodies, including rivers and lakes. This is due to their greater collective heterogeneity (habitat variation between different ponds).

Sadly we know very little about ponds across the landscape, in particular our best ponds. It’s estimated that nationally only 10% of these priority ponds have been identified.

This project addressed this data gap in the Chess catchment, working with volunteers to undertake its first landscape scale assessment of ponds, building a picture of their condition as well as identifying the best sites to guide future conservation action.