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Natural 'pond' development help
kaiabintsavage
Posts: 1
Hi all!
At my work (a lovely woodland holiday club) we have a small stream running over the land to a bigger stream, and halfway through there is a place that looks like a natural pond where the water builds up before it carries on.
We'd love to develop it into an actual pond, as we have some very eager ducks and it's in a patch of land we want to turn into a wildlife area.
Is it possible to just dig it a bit larger and deeper and it'll be a pond? Or is it necessary to completely drain it and line it?
Many thanks in advance! 
Kaia
0
Posts
so long as the stream never runs dry, it shouldn't need lining.
Kaia, you will probably find that you need permission from the Environment Agency to make any kind of change to a water course even though you are the owner of the land it is situated on.
Might be best to check.
Ponds on streams aren't ideal because they tend to silt up quite quickly, and a lot of species don't like the flowing water so much. Look at the website of the Freshwater Habitats Trust (formerly Pond Conservation) for useful information - The Pond Book they sell for £17 has a lot of excellent advice for designing and building wildlife ponds. Link: http://freshwaterhabitats.org.uk/habitats/pond/create-pond/
Too many ducks aren't that great for a pond because they tend to disturb & stir up the water a lot, and eat a lot of the other wildlife. Obviously if a few wild ones turn up naturally that's fine, but when they're fed and encouraged it can be quite detrimental to the pond.
Hi, sounds like a brilliant project. You wont need a liner but accept that the water level will fluctuate. I dug a hole and broke through some field drains to create mine. My advice would be to go bigger than you think you will need. I did talk land and water management agency for this area, and they had no issues and were very helpful. Do take lots of pics!