Summer is almost here, and after a very damp month – great for keeping temporary ponds wet – we have been allocating ponds to volunteers and sorting access with landowners. Our volunteers are just starting site visits and we couldn’t be happier. Hopefully the weather will be a bit kinder over the coming months.
Student Projects
We are delighted to have some students undertaking projects looking at different aspects of the Ice Age Ponds of Herefordshire. One of these will include doing some practical geophysical surveys of some of the ponds during July and August. While very exciting to see what we will discover, this is hard work, so we will be looking for volunteers to help with these days. If you are keen to get involved with this part of the project then please let Beth (e.andrews@worc.ac.uk). We look forward to sharing the results of this exciting research at the end of the project.
Sarah and Rose taking water samples for eDNA analysis. Photo courtesy of Will Watson.
Public Events
We are planning on attending some shows and having our own mini touring Ice Age exhibition, when the government guidance allows. We were delighted to be able to work with the Herefordshire Council Museum Service for their Ice Age Hereford exhibition and would like to give more people a chance to see some of it during the rest of the project. We will let you know what is happening, but look forward to getting out in the community talking all things “Ice Age Ponds” with people again – so watch this space!
Volunteer Training
If you want to join us for our surveys there is still time to come along to one of our training events. To register your interest and get details for new training dates please contact Sarah King, one of our Ice Age Pond trainee assistants (s.king@herefordshirewt.co.uk).
If you missed our online training you can watch it at https://www.herefordshirewt.org/iceageponds/training-events-resources
Also available are some short talks by project staff:
- Conserving Herefordshire’s Ice Age Ponds: Aspects of the Geology by Ian Fairchild
- Identifying Aquatic Invertebrates
- An Introduction to Pond Plants
- Identifying Amphibians Training
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.
