Intro to Ponds Training @Peel Park & the Coppice LNR

On 25th April 2026, Prospects held an "Intro to Ponds" workshop in collaboration with Amphibian Reptile Group Lancashire.

The day started indoors at Cambridge St Methodist Church, where two members of ARGL laid out the foundations of how to ID aquatic wildlife and how to best create/manage their habitat.

In the afternoon, the group headed to Peel Park & the Coppice LNR to get some experience in the field.

At Pleck Meadow, we talked through the basics of pond dipping as a survey technique and talked about the history of the three ponds there. As they were only created in Winter 2022/23, they are still quite new so it was a good place to start and talk about pond creation and what you can expect in the first few years.

Whilst pond dipping we found some interesting critters with the highlight being an adult male Palmate Newt.

Following numerous sightings of Common Toad, Common Frog, and some clutches of frog spawn earlier in the year, we were happy to discover that there were frog and toad tadpoles in the ponds.

There were also many invertebrates such as midge larvae, Pond Skater, Marsh Snail sp., Pond Snail sp., Beetles (Diving, Hydrophylid sp., and Helophorid sp.) and Water Boatman.

We also identified some of the many plants that colonise ponds and their edges, such as Floating Sweet-grass, Marsh Violet, Soft Rush, Lesser Spearwort and Greater Bird's-foot Trefoil.

After the new ponds at Pleck Meadow, we wanted to be able to showcase some more established ponds. The disused lodges at the top of Plantation Rd were once used to power the mills that resided there in the 1800s. Following their purchase from North West Water by Hyndburn Borough Council, they are now a thriving aquatic ecosystem used by amphibians, invertebrates and water fowl.

However, due to the lack of keystone aquatic species like Water Vole and Beavers, they are starting to get overgrown and are becoming less biodiverse as ponds due to succession.

Succession is the natural process of habitats being succeeded by other habitats. E.g., many ponds accumulate sediment over time which can start supporting larger plants like shrubs and trees. Accumulating sediment and vegetation eventually dry up the pond, which then becomes scrub or woodland. Although this is a natural process, it is usually counteracted by keystone species which we lack at Peel Park & the Coppice LNR. Ponds are incredibly important habitats, so we want to prevent their succession.

So our discussion began with what sort of management could be done to reverse their degradation. 3 key factors were identified:

1. Removing Invasive Non-Native Species like Himalayan Balsam
2. Removing some of the widespread vegetation such as Reedmace to create more open water.
3. Removing some of the trees bordering the pond so that it is less shaded (the majority of pond inhabitants are cold-blooded/exothermic, so they need sunlight to warm up and become active)

These are some of the factors that we will take in to consideration with future management.

We also identified some other species here, like Marsh Marigold, Frogbit, Yellow Flag Iris, Hoglouse, and midge larvae.