Open Country

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Factual: Science & Nature: Nature & Environment

Countryside magazine featuring the people and wildlife that shape the landscape of Britain

Countryside magazine featuring the people and wildlife that shape the landscape of the British Isles

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Open Country: Ghost Ponds and Underwater Songs

Ghost Ponds and Underwater Songs

BBC Radio 4 - Open Country, Ghost Ponds and Underwater Songs

In Norfolk, ghost ponds are being recovered, restored and heard to sing once again.

Ghost ponds and overgrown ponds in Norfolk are being recovered and restored in an extraordinary conservation project in which sound is being used to measure the health of a pond.

Richard Waddingham, a Norfolk farmer has been the inspiration for a remarkable project which is recovering and restoring Norfolk’s ponds. Norfolk has more ponds than any other English county; around 23,000 ponds.  In North Norfolk many of these ponds were created in the 17-19th centuries as marl pits to provide lime-rich clay to improve the soil for crops. But over the last 50 years many of these ponds have suffered neglected or been filled in, largely as a result of changes in farming practices. Today, the Norfolk Pond Project is working to recover and restore these ponds. And where there is life in a pond there is sound; for example, water boatmen, respiring plants and water beetles all produce sounds, so by listening to the underwater sounds in a pond, you can estimate its health. For one composer, this was also an opportunity to create music. Not only does a healthy pond ‘sing’, but it increases the biodiversity in an area, and as Richard Waddingham first discovered and demonstrated, pond conservation and intense agriculture can coexist. 
Presenter Helen Mark, Producer Sarah Blunt
For more information 
www.norfolkponds.org 
https://www.greenthefarm.org/see-the-ponds/

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