Latest news with #BrecksFenEdgeand
BBC News
22-02-2025
- Science
- BBC News
Dormant seeds from Watton Ice Age pond project germinate
Rare freshwater wildlife has made comeback following a project to rediscover and restore ancient Ice Age ponds, a charity Wildlife Trust (NWT) and its partners were behind the project to find the ponds or "pingos" which originated through natural glacial processes more than 10,000 years said dormant seeds preserved in sediment layers in the Brecks had germinated, bringing back a variety of aquatic plants, including rare fen pondweed."We think we are seeing one of the world's most successful ecological restoration techniques unfold and reveal its true potential," said University College London (UCL) professors Helene Burningham and Carl Sayer. "If you can find and expose the old store of seeds of lost wetlands, all sorts of rare plants species can recover and with the plants comes the habitat for a vast array of other creatures," the pair said nine of the excavated ghost pingos now qualified for priority habitat status due to their ecological value. The charity worked with UCL, Norfolk Geodiversity Partnership and the Norfolk Ponds Project to locate and re-excavate buried pingo ponds hidden beneath advanced mapping techniques, the team found 15 buried pingos - 11 on NWT's Watering Farm, near Watton, Norfolk, adjacent to Thompson Common nature reserve, and four on privately-owned sites than 90 wetland plant species have emerged from the preserved dormant seeds, while the ponds have become havens for wildlife, hosting 50 species of water beetles - 15 of conservation concern - as well as common frogs, toads, great crested newts and grass snakes. NWT hoped the project had created a "blueprint" for further pingo restoration."Every pingo we uncover here boosts the size and quality of NWT Thompson Common nature reserve, providing bigger, better and more joined up habitat," said Jon Preston, nature conservation manager for Holt-Wilson of the Norfolk Geodiversity Partnership, said: "A star find was a log with possible tool marks which we dated to 1350 BC using radiocarbon analysis – that means the early middle Bronze Age."Deeper down, some of the patterns in the chalky pond basement layers must have been made by ground ice 12,000 years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age."The project was part of the Brecks Fen Edge and Rivers Landscape Partnership scheme, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
BBC News
11-02-2025
- General
- BBC News
Construction of new £1m fish pass in Mildenhall gets under way
Work has started on a new £1m eco-project which will enable the free flow of native wild brown trout, eels and coarse fish in a Environment Agency has started the construction of a new fish pass in the River Lark at Turf Lock in Mildenhall, Suffolk – one of just 200 chalk streams in the three-month project will see two weirs removed, which have been impeding the fish and eels' ability to access habitats for spawning and foraging limestone boulders will be used to create a fish passage known as a rip-rap rock ramp, which provides shelter for fish. Lou Mayer, the environment programme manager for the Environment Agency, said: "It's fantastic to see work beginning on this important nature recovery project."Chalk streams are an incredibly valuable natural resource which the Environment Agency is working hard to restore and protect." The project is part of the Brecks Fen Edge and Rivers Landscape Partnership Scheme and is supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. It has been facilitated by Suffolk County Council, local councils, the Environment Agency, Anglian Water and Natural Faircloth-Mutton, Suffolk County Council's cabinet member for environment, communities and equality, said: "Suffolk County Council is proud to support excellent partnership projects such as this, that deliver meaningful, and lasting outcomes to protect and enhance Suffolk's biodiversity through the restoration of our valuable chalk steam habitats." During the construction of the new fish pass the footpath on the north side of the River Lark will be closed - from the bridge at Mill Street to the access track adjacent to the cricket field. An alternative route will be established and signposted. Follow Suffolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
