People, Ponds and Water Project

Pond protection in England and Wales is to get a welcome level of support after a grant by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) totalling £1,344,500 to conduct the UK’s largest and most ambitious freshwater monitoring and protection project to date: the ’People, Ponds and Water Project’. The three year project will train thousands of volunteers across the country as ‘citizen scientists’

There are three main strands to the project:

• Establish a new national volunteer surveillance programme called ‘PondNet’ to ensure that endangered species do not suffer from further declines.
• ‘Flagship Ponds’ to be protected by specialist volunteers trained in identification, management and conservation technique.
• ‘Clean Water for Wildlife Strategy’ will involve the testing of waterbodies, by the use of simple strip tests, for two common indicators of pollution – nitrate and phosphate levels.  The tests are to be undertaken by thousands of volunteers, including school and community groups. 

For more information follow this link:

http://www.freshwaterhabitats.org.uk/news/people-ponds-water-secures-funding/