Transforming overgrown farm #ponds by scrub & mud removal. Before restoration this Norfolk pond was anoxic from bed to surface, had an impoverished plant & invertebrate community & lacked breeding amphibians. All of these things were reversed BIG TIME after restoration! @arc-trust.bsky.social

During & 2 years after the restoration of a scrubbed over farm #pond. A massive increase in biodiversity observed. Return of Great Crested Newt & appearance of the mega rare Tassel Stonewort. We can report on 100s of stories like this from Norfolk. Ponds should be a higher conservation priority

Happy NY!!! Since 2014 we have pioneered the restoration of overgrown ponds & lost infilled #ghostponds in the UK. Our methods, learnt from a wonderful farmer (Richard Waddingham), are mega successful & lead to massive biodiversity gains for aquatic & terrestrial species. Please support us in 2026 🎉

I wonder what route the otter takes to the river?

Spindle brightens up any day. Always in the older hedges.

A mystery seed from a Breckland, eastern England ghostpingo core as found by @hayleymcmechan.bsky.social. help oh botanists!!! 1 mm scale @annasolcova.bsky.social @jo-the-botanist.bsky.social @bramblebotanist.bsky.social @timholtwilson.bsky.social

A solstice #ghostpond haunts a field with a forgotten name. As the veil thins water rises through soil warmed by the winter sun and the portal opens. Life stirs waiting for the light #solstice #christmasghosts

The glory of a well managed Norfolk marl pit #pond. If a little buffered from the fields & no inflow pipe ponds can be spectacularly diverse even in intensive arable. Ponds are probably the most important farm habitat @farmwildlifeuk.bsky.social

Simon Johnson from @freshwaterbio.bsky.social talking straight about the poor state of Norfolk's River Wensum #wensumriverkin

🐝 The @biggive.bsky.social’s #ChristmasChallenge is LIVE! 🌎 This #GivingTuesday, donate once to Zero Hour and make twice the impact. 🎁 From 2-9 December, every £ you donate to help build our urgent climate and nature campaign will be DOUBLED! 💚 Donate here 👉 donate.biggive.org/campaign/a05...

A palaeoecological plant find from a Breckland ghost ice age pond core (East Harling, E. England). Puzzled over by @hayleymcmechan.bsky.social & myself. Help with ID please team!! Seems obvious but stuck. @jo-the-botanist.bsky.social @bramblebotanist.bsky.social @timholtwilson.bsky.social

A wooded multi-channel #chalkstream in a Norfolk (eastern England) military training area that has avoided tidying & dredging. Lots of fallen wood & bankside trees. Sparkling gravel patches, sands & leaf packs. Crystal clear waters fed by healthy local springs. Everything we have lost & want back

What is & who are Wensum Riverkin? Meet a river in trouble & meet the team who will never stop fighting for it - part 2 #wensumriverkin

The invasive plant, New Zealand Pigmywort Crassula helmsii, is a big trouble maker, but can be hand-picked & dug out of ponds & eradicated. Over recent days our Julia Mumford-Smith & 4 volunteers worked hard to clear Crassula from 2 species-rich North Norfolk farm ponds. Crassula can be beaten!!!

Wensum Riverkin - part 1 @tonyjuniper.bsky.social @fishtwitcher.bsky.social

This is good news!!! #wensumriverkin

Please support #WensumRiverkin. Many Anglers & local people are up for fighting for Norfolk's iconic River Wensum. The Wensum is in big trouble!!! Please join us & follow.

For your freshwater Friday delight... we're thrilled to present a deep dive with @carlsayer.bsky.social, Prof of Limnology & Freshwater Ecology at UCL, into the fascinating world of #GhostPonds, and their potent power for ecological and palaeoecological regeneration: www.fba.org.uk/fba-voice/gh...

Ghost pond resurrection. Is it the most successful form of ecological restoration known? www.fba.org.uk/fba-voice/gh...

Agile Frog is getting a helping hand in the Channel Islands. Brilliant project underway in Jersey. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Much talk all the time of freshwater wetlands being great filters & cleaning water. We must remember that sending dirty water into wetlands destroys them. There is nothing more certain in science than that. Make wetlands clean!!! @ramsar.org @freshwaterbio.bsky.social

Happy Halloween freshwater fiends! Do you believe in ghosts? Nope. How about ghost ponds?👻 Please allow us to introduce you to a the amazing #GhostPond aficionado @carlsayer.bsky.social for inspiring ponderings on the incredible power of ghost pond resurrections! Check it out: youtu.be/bT1FLPCjEPw

How do you get a 120% increase in wetland plants in the farmed landscape & massively increase water beetle diversity too? The answer is restore farm ponds by scrub & sediment removal - key is to go in hard & make a big impact. See new paper: share.google/VVowsJzqHdPT...

Campaigners + local businesses claim phosphates + nitrates from the collective poo of as many as 23million chickens packed into the Wye catchment from a growing number of intensive chicken farms are driving algal blooms, harming fish + wildlife. 🧵 1/ www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The great Helen Greaves representing us at the Norfolk Biodiversity Partnership Community Biodiversity Fair today @theforumnorwich.bsky.social promoting ponds, #pond restoration & of course #ghostpond resurrection

A simply magnificent @uclgeography.bsky.social MSc Aquatic Conservation & MSc Conservation team at Blakeney Point NNR in autumn weather to dream of @tonyjuniper.bsky.social @craigbennett3.bsky.social

The Bodham Beavers, upper River Glaven. North Norfolk MSc fieldclass for @uclgeography.bsky.social MSc Conservation & Aquatic Conservation 2025 with Jonah Tosney from Norfolk Rivers Trust & 9 beavers

Sampling #ghostponds before & after ressurection today with @hayleymcmechan.bsky.social & the MSc Conservation & MSc Aquatic Conservation teams on our @uclgeography.bsky.social fieldcourse to N. Norfolk. Utter madness!

The MSc Aquatic Conservation & MSc Conservation @uclgeography.bsky.social North Norfolk fieldclass in full flow in superb weather. So far no sign of #Blackshuck! @tonyjuniper.bsky.social @craigbennett3.bsky.social

Spindle at a pink peak. My favourite plant of the autumn for #wildflowerhour

A resurrected Ice age #pond in Norfolk, E. England. Dug to draw in extraterrestrials. It took 1 day to bring back. The black soil is full of seeds. The excavation will fill over winter & be amazing by summer. Photo @hburningham.bsky.social @hayleymcmechan.bsky.social @timholtwilson.bsky.social

‘It’s resurrection’: 1,000-year-old seeds could grow ancient plants in England’s ice-age ghost ponds So excited to be quoted in this article about our resurrected #ghostponds with members of our fantastic team @carlsayer.bsky.social, @hburningham.bsky.social, @timholtwilson.bsky.social

Our work resurrecting ice age #ghostponds in the Guardian today @timholtwilson.bsky.social @hburningham.bsky.social @uclgeography.bsky.social ‘Just add water’: how to bring back ancient plants in a Norfolk ghost pond | Wildlife | The Guardian share.google/kO6HQaC4PAUJ...

1/4: We restored the biggest Norfolk farmland #pond we have ever worked on over the last 3 days. 50 x 25 m. Huge amounts of willow was removed by our volunteers followed by much chainsaw work @patrickbarkham.bsky.social

We have been described as "THE BEST NGO THAT NOBODY KNOWS ABOUT" Please help by following us & reposting!!!

1/4: It's Norfolk Ponds Project Pond Week. Despite the wild weather hampering things today we are now 4 ponds in! Look at this pond in the morning compared with the afternoon. All done with hand tools & brill volunteers clearing scrub (phase 1)!

A day of 'ghostpingo' #pond resurrection in the Norfolk Brecklands with @timholtwilson.bsky.social & other wonderful experts. By the end of tomorrow Norfolk will have 2 more of its lost ancient ponds back

This week we are working with volunteers to restore around 6 farm #ponds by major scrub & mud removal. Today we got almost 2 ponds done through pure weight of numbers helping!!! A truly brilliant crazy team!!!

Check it out: www.vims.edu/newsandevent...! @jwcat757.bsky.social at VIMS popularized our article (www.nature.com/articles/s43...)! Enjoy with ditches, folks! 🧪 Not pictured: journal article co-lead @peatymike.bsky.social, section leads @fluitans.bsky.social, @drtatariw.bsky.social, & others...

Getting ready for this year's 'ghost pingo' restoration campaign on farmland in the Brecks - whatever tomorrow's weather may throw at us! @carlsayer.bsky.social @norfolkponds.bsky.social @brecksfarmerswn.bsky.social #Breckland #biodiversity #geodiversity

1/2: Ponds were often filled in at the same time that hedges were removed & so burnt wood & hedgebank soil was dumped in the disappearing pond which was a convenient hole. Big tree stumps could not be burnt so often come out whole when we restore #ghostponds. Often we find loads of big stumps

A pond restored in 2015. Stunning structural complexity & very high biodiversity in its 3 planty zones. Right in the middle of an arable field but no drainage in & a good buffer. Farming & conservation working together. This is what we MUST DO! @wildernorfolk.bsky.social @tonyjuniper.bsky.social

This is what we do. Since 2014 we have restored (& guided others to do the same in the UK) 100s of #ponds with **MASSIVE** measured benefits. See this mid-arable farm pond before & just 1 year after restoration by scrub & mud removal. A freshwater jewel in the landscape @davetickner.bsky.social

It's a great when you change the map! 2 resurrected #ghostpingos, just 1 yr old, look like they have been there forever. Working with the brill @timholtwilson.bsky.social & funded by Norfolk Wildlife Trust, BFER & Heritage Lottery we have helped 22 lost ancient Ice Age ponds back to life since 2021

Restoring farm ponds can be very good for pollinators. We wonder why!!!??? doi.org/10.1111/icad...

1/2: A Norfolk #ghostpingo #pond during, just after, 1 year (2024) & 2 years (2025) after ressurection. The pond now supports well over 35 wetland plants. It is stunning & getting better & better. An old seedbank was surely exposed allowing rapid plant colonisation

1/2: The charm of overgrown ponds. In Norfolk Ponds Project we reset succession in wooded-over farm ponds by major scrub & mud removal. This hugely increases biodiversity at the landscape-scale. But so there is a mix of successional stages we always leave some ponds. Here are 4 we will not touch

Cley-Salthouse marshes. A land full of birds & birdwatchers. But this area is so important for European eel which is critically endangered & declining in North Norfolk. Let's focus on eels too please. Eels are more than just bittern food!

Swallowtail caterpillar munching fennel in a friend’s Broads garden. Conservation implications? Fennel rich mixes in arable adjacent to wetlands? (Pic, Rick Southwood).

Please follow @norfolkponds.bsky.social. Only positive messages to show the huge role of ponds in restoring nature @arc-trust.bsky.social @wwtworldwide.bsky.social @naturalengland.bsky.social @brecksfarmerswn.bsky.social @wclnews.bsky.social @tonyjuniper.bsky.social @craigbennett3.bsky.social