Our first “Ghost Pond”
We know that many of the Ice Age Ponds in Herefordshire have been lost over the last 150 years. We can often work out where these ponds were by looking at historic maps, geological maps and aerial photos – they often stand out as wet areas in winter and dry areas in summer. As part of this project we wanted to restore some of these “ghost” ponds.
We are pleased to say that we have just dug out our first pond at Sturts Nature Reserve. This will add another pond to the network of wetland, ponds and meadows on this site, and possibly will reveal new plants, from seeds buried in the soil when this pond was filled in over 100 years ago. It may look a bit bare at the moment, but given time this will become another wonderful ice age pond again.
Volunteer Training Day
We will be holding an ecology survey training day on 13th August. The aim of the day is to learn from our project ecologists about the wildlife living in and around Ice Age ponds and to learn how to ID some of these. We hope that this will be a really useful and interesting day for all.
As part of the project we are also producing a short film of the project activities and will have a small film crew onsite who, with your permission, may be filming some of the surveying.
If you would like to take part please book a ticket via eventbrite:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ice-age-ponds-training-day-tickets-165641769993
The final details, including location and timings will be sent out nearer the time so if you do sign-up please look out for this email.
Weather warning: If the weather doesn’t look good for the 13th we may move the session to another date.
Summer Holiday Fun
Ice Age Trail in Hereford
Until Tuesday 31st August you can take part in our Ice Age Trail around Hereford. Start at Hereford Museum and find the clues to our Ice Age Trail and you could win a mammoth prize. For more details visit: https://www.herefordshirewt.org/events or see our social media pages.
Ice Age Ponds App
We are delighted to announce that our Ice Age Ponds app is now available to download free from the App Store or Google Play. Just search IceAgePonds. With the app you can visit some of the ice age ponds, take a cycle or car tour around Ice Age Herefordshire or even take a selfie with a mammoth. We would love to know what you think and see your photos, so please do share on social media #iceageponds #mammothselfie.
It looks like we will soon be able to meet and greet our volunteers again and say a massive thank you (possibly with cake) to everyone who has continued to support our project both with time and information and lots of patience. Have a wonderful summer and we look forward to catching up with you soon.
Find out more:
To keep up to date with our project, please follow us on instagram (@earth_heritage_trust @herefordshirewildlifetrust ) twitter (@buildingstones @HerefordshireWT) or visit our project blog: https://www.herefordshirewt.org/iceageponds/newsletters-blogs.
