Ecology

The new landscape works across the site will create an ecology comprising both a productive landscape and a natural landscape which varies in topography and planting, offering a wider range of habitats for wildlife and food production for consumption.

New vegetated bunds will be planted with grasses and drought resistant plants that offer an opportunity to create different habitats and enhance biodiversity.

There is a nationwide lack of clean water ponds that can sustain important wildlife and we want the proposed ponds to become one of the Priority Ponds in Sussex and be registered with the Million Ponds initiative.

Biodiversity

Sussex Wildlife Trust identifies ponds and reedbeds as Priority Habitats in ‘Biodiversity & Planning in Sussex’ (2014).

The proposed pond will, if permission is granted, be planted with native British aquatic plants, including areas of Common Reed, Phragmites australis (see image below), to contribute to the Biodiversity Priority Habitats in the County.

In addition we intend to seek registration of the pond with the Million Ponds Project, a nationwide initiative that aims to see the creation of 30,000 clean water ponds by 2020. The criteria for registration of new ponds are:

either

clean water source (groundwater or clean surface runoff)
to be left to colonise naturally
to be left to thrive without undue disturbance

to be created for one of the many pond-associated Biodiversity Action Plan species from the BAP species list associated with ponds in England.

The planting strategy is to use only plants appropriate to the site from those shown below.

In addition the pond will be filled and kept topped up with clean groundwater from an existing borehole on site and is downslope from a large domestic garden which is maintained organically without herbicides and pesticides, further increasing the likelihood of the pond remaining clean in the future.