More pond wildlife in the news today

Another exiting freshwater find today: this time it’s new pond sites for the extremely endangered Tadpole Shrimp (Triops cancriformis).

Until today’s reports this animal was known only in the New Forest in two, or perhaps three, ponds, and along the Solway coast in one single pond.

It’s survival in the UK is remarkable – not least because one of its sites is within 2 m (yes 2 m) of a road.

I’ve featured the Solway site before, which was originally discovered by the staff of the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust.

Now there are reports of two new sites, also on the Solway – covered by the BBC here, the Guardian here and the Mail.

A message from the Secretary of State for the Environment….

I thought readers of the blog might be interested to see the messages to RSPB members, Wildlife Trust members and members of the British Association for Shooting and Conservation from the Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman to get involved in designing the new White Paper on the Natural Environment (a White Paper is the traditional precursor to a new Act of Parliament).

It will probably be a good idea for all of us to get behind Caroline Spelman as she argues the case for wildlife and the environment over the next few months.

And for members of the the Wildlife Trusts…..

And for the members of the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (known as BASC).

Is there a connection to garden ponds?

Well, of course. Making top quality garden ponds is one way of putting back into the landscape something that has become extremely rare in much of England: clean, unpolluted, water – a very real way of making your own personal contribution to increasing the extent of good quality wildlife habitats.

And out in the countryside, making ponds looks like a remarkably good way of protecting freshwater biodiversity more generally, as important as trying to clean up rivers, create new wetlands and improve degraded lakes.