Big Pond Thaw

Thanks to everyone who has sent in a Thaw form.

We’re working on an interim report now.

 

Rivers are as important as Elton John’s baby boy

Our letter to the Independent on the state of Britain’s rivers was picked up by The Week which provides ‘the very best of the week’s news in just one hour’.

It was second only in importance to the issue of Elton John’s baby, which just goes to show quite how important an issue it really is!

You can see it here (with apologies to The Week for copying their paper – but it’s in a good cause!).

Click to enlarge

Icy pond debate hots up!

See the latest comment!

Look out for an update soon on the Big Pond Thaw forms which we’re getting sent in.

Icy pond amphibian mortalities

As you can see from the comments, dead amphibians are still appearing from defrosted ponds.

If you’ve had amphibian mortalities and have a few minutes to spare, do complete a Big Pond Thaw form.

Here’s one the Telegraph developed for themselves

Just to be fair to the Telegraph, here’s a little piece that they put together for today’s paper.

This wasn’t, as far as I know, due to copying apparently reliable people’s press releases.

Rather it was by the (comparatively) old-fangled journalistic technique of phoning people up (like me) and asking them what they think.

And then writing it up!

From the Daily Telegraph 6 Jan 2010

In the end, the problem for journalists is that they have to take things on trust, even when speaking to the apparently reliable!

And as for the story: there’s no doubt that some fish have died during the cold weather. It’s obviously sad for fish lovers of all stripe, though it may also be nature’s way of telling fish that there are some places they don’t really belong.

Oops – Telegraph swallows the bait, hook, line and stinker

It’s distressing to see how easy it is to dupe people as yet another writer gulps down the bait generously spread on the water for hungry errr……anyway by the Environment Agency.

To be fair, Mr Lean does go on to say that 3/4 of all rivers fail new EU standards.

But rivers are not ‘clean’ as the piece’s sub-head implies. Pollution is the main reason rivers will be failing: and unpolluted water is virtually extinct in lowland England.

Worse, streams and rivers make up only 1/3 of the area of our freshwaters; the rest – ponds, lakes, ditches, canals – are in an even worse state.

Letter on river quality in today’s Times

The letter was also published in the Independent today. Click here and scroll down to ‘Little change in flows of filth!’

Are rivers really at their best for over a century?

Pond Conservation responds to the widely repeated news that rivers are at their best for a century. See here, here, here and here. You can see the original press release here.

“It’s always pleasant to read good-news stories at the year’s end. Unfortunately today’s tale from the Environment Agency that our rivers are “at their healthiest for over a century” isn’t one of them.

The Agency has picked out a few charismatic river species (salmon, water vole, otter), selectively reported the truth about them, and ignored the bad news about water quality.

Although salmon have returned to the formerly filthy Tyne and Mersey, the Environment Agency’s own data show that across England and Wales the overall trend in salmon numbers has been downward since the late 1980s. Numbers in 2009 are the lowest on record.

Across the river system as a whole Government statisticians describe the Environment Agency’s results as showing ‘little change’ in river biological quality in recent years. And that’s ‘little change’ from a very low base. Agency data show that 75% of our rivers do not even reach ‘good’ standard. Just a single lowland river is classified as ‘high’ quality and essentially undamaged. If you pour a bucket of rainwater into a barrel of sewage you can call it ‘cleaner’ but you wouldn’t want to drink the result.

Many of the Agency’s staff are highly dedicated and do sterling work to protect the environment, but for their public relations team to present such a distorted view of the degraded state of our freshwaters is both shaming and dangerously complacent.”

More comment on the Environment Agency’s end of year rivers press release…

I don’t know who writes the UK Rivers Network pages but this appeared today on their Home page (scroll down to Latest News):

Sat, 1 Jan 2011: Who’s telling the truth about river quality?: Journalists from virtually every newspaper (and even the better ones) have swallowed whole the latest Environment Agency press release “Noughties were nice years for rivers”, spinning for all its worth during one of the year’s quietest and most news-hungry weekends: “The last decade has been the best for rivers since the industrial revolution”. Anyone with more than a two-day memory will recall recent news stories screaming that three quarters of UK rivers fail to meet the European definition of “good”, while only five meet the highest standard, and the recent stir about bad rivers following on from the Our Rivers poll [Actually, this poll is a fairly silly bit of campaigning designed just to get media attention - Jeremy]. Or how about the National Audit Office stating a few months ago that “The Environment Agency’s approach to tackling diffuse water pollution, such as run-off from agricultural land, has not, to date, proved value for money.” The highly respected, well-informed freshwater team at WWF also seems to take a very different view from the Agency, with its website stating that UK rivers: “are in danger… only 15% of the total length of our rivers are healthy enough to support a vibrant ecosystem, and they’re increasingly under pressure from growing human populations and the effects of climate change.” No cause for celebration or complacency there. Our own state of our rivers page charts the Environment Agency’s and the government’s “unhappy” tendency to be selective and/or economical with the truth about river quality over the last couple of decades. That’s quite enough spin, thanks: yes, let’s have full recognition for all the hard work people (Environment Agency first and foremost) have done to improve our rivers, but also frank and objective recognition of where our rivers are, where they need to be, and what needs to be done to help them.

See: http://www.ukrivers.net/index.html#news

Oh dear…..the worst mortality so far

From the Big Pond Thaw submissions:

SUBMITTED DATA

Enter your nearest town and county
Nottingham

Enter your postcode
NG4

What sort of pond are you looking at?
garden pond

How big is your pond?
medium – up to 5 meters by 5 metres

Ice cover: roughly how long did ice cover the pond?
Longer

Did you make a hole in the ice?
No

Did you break the ice?
No

If yes, how often?
[No Data Supplied]

Snow cover: was the pond covered by snow?
Yes

Did you clear snow from your pond?
No

Roughly for how long did snow cover the pond?
1 week

How deep is your pond?
Deep (deeper than 60 cm or 2 feet)

In the pond do you have:
Edge plants (include grass)

Floating-leaved plants

Plants completely underwater

Is the pond filled by:
Mixture of tapwater and rainwater

Roughly what depth of leaf litter and sediment is there in the bottom of your pond?
Deep – more than 15 cm (6 inches)

Did you run a pump, fountain, heater or other device to keep the pond open during the freeze?
[No Data Supplied]

Other (list)
[No Data Supplied]

Do you have fish in your pond?
No

If you do have fish, what sort are they?
[No Data Supplied]

Did any of your fish die during or straight after the freeze?
[No Data Supplied]

Which, if any, fish died?
[No Data Supplied]

Do you have amphibians?
Yes

What sort are they (list)
Frogs and newts

Did you see any dead amphibians after the ice melted? Check the box if yes and give details of the number
Common Frog

Number of dead amphibians seen
50+

Did you see any dead smaller animals (e.g. mayflies, water beetles, dragonflies) after the ice melted? Tick yes or no and give brief details.
No

Details
Ice still not completely melted so there could be smaller animals still encesded in ice.

Is there anything else you would like to tell us about your pond?
Many of the frogs were frozen into the ice near the surface, there was a brief thaw before Xmas the ice partially melted it seemed as if the frogs came nearer the surface and then got trapped in the sudden severe refreeze.  Last year I lost all my frog spawn the pond became rank, I wondered if after last winters freezing it became polluted with dead frogs.

First name
Pat