Pond Refurbishment

This initiative forms part of Reclaim the Rain’s catchment-wide approach to sustainable water management, funded by the Environment Agency’s ‘Flood and Coastal Resilience Innovation Programme’. Reclaim the Rain worked closely with landowners in Boxford’s upper surface water catchment to refurbish and restore two ponds that had become heavily silted-up over time. Following an initial site visit from Ecology Officers and Suffolk Wildlife Trust, an overall assessment and series of recommendations were shared, highlighting the ecological value of pond mosaics, the wider benefits of maintaining a healthy network of ponds across the catchment area and opportunities to enhance this further in Boxford. To supplement this work, coppicing and pollarding maintenance activities were carried out to maximise ecological benefits beyond desilting by allowing more sunlight to reach the water and improving the overall aquatic health of the ponds’ southern extents.

Working with the same landowners, Reclaim the Rain installed a network of leaky dams and planted willow trees, offering additional resilience to the area. Together, these measures provide an integrated approach to water management across a catchment, whilst supporting wider ecological, economic, and water resource and flood risk reduction benefits too.