Pond restoration in Lune Aqueduct, Lancaster

Aim

Love nature by the Lune Aqueduct? Right now, you can give frogs, newts and dragonflies a new home by restoring and reviving canalside ponds.

We need to reach £5,000 by 31st January 2023, so that this winter we can restore vital, life-giving wildlife ponds on our nature reserve by the Lune Aqueduct on the Lancaster Canal. Please join us and donate what you can to help give biodiversity a boost in this much loved area.

Who are we?  

My name is Diane Rollin, your local ecologist in Lancashire from the Canal & River Trust. Our charity protects over 2,000 miles of canals across England and Wales, helping to make life better by water for millions of people. 

At a time when nature is in crisis and so much UK wildlife is in decline, it’s my job to help make sure our canals, banksides and towpaths are rich natural habitats that help to give biodiversity a much-needed boost. That’s why we now need your help to create even better areas for water wildlife to thrive, by restoring the ponds on our much-loved nature reserve by the Lune Aqueduct on the Lancaster Canal

Where are we?  

Simply click this link or the picture below and zoom into the red pin to find us on google maps. Our nature reserve borders the pathway along the Lancaster canal, leading up from the Aqueduct Car Park.

What do we want to do?  

Here at the spectacular Lune Aqueduct, we want to restore ponds to give a whole variety of wildlife from frogs and newts to dragonflies and damselflies bigger, better homes. 

As you can see from the plan below, nine ponds were created back in 2013 as part of a new nature site leading up to the canal crossing. Turning these unloved scrublands into rich pond habitats has helped to attract over 127 species to our nature site. 

Aquatic plants such as water plantain, water lily and water mint soon attracted insects like common darter dragonflies, diving beetles and peacock butterflies. In turn these insects made attractive prey for common frogs, smooth newts, moorhens and dunnocks. Many species of bat also became regular visitors.

Since then, a wonderful home for wildlife by water has sprung into life.

Over time however, ponds naturally fill up with fast-growing water plants like bulrush, reed or pendulous sedge. When their roots break through the pond lining, water can quickly drain away and dry up.

That’s why this winter we need your help to raise £5,000 so we can restore the largest pond in our nature reserve and keep it healthy for coming years. If we do nothing now, the vital ponds we created and all the life they now support could disappear. Your gifts will help us to:

• Remove all the invasive vegetation clogging up the pond, so that wildlife has room to thrive again.
• Re-dig and reprofile the pond to a depth of at least 1.5m, so it just the right depth to support life, and gives amphibians an easy way to climb in and out.
• Reline the ponds with a more robust clay lining, so that vegetation doesn’t break through again for years to come.
• Replant the pond with non-invasive water plants, that will feed and shelter wildlife.
• Quickly restore a water habitat that wildlife will move into within months.

Why are ponds important

Over the last 50 years the number and quality of ponds across the UK has declined dramatically, leading to huge losses in the number of frogs, toads, newts and other wildlife that depends on water to feed, breed, drink and shelter. Droughts caused by climate change are only adding to the pressure on pondlife.

Yet as any conservation expert will tell you, creating healthy ponds is a fantastic way to bring more wildlife into the local area. Water really is life. And for species like frogs, smooth newts and dragonflies, the still waters of a pond are preferable to the busy flow of the canal.

Frogs can’t thrive in busy flowing canals full of boats and activity. That’s why we build ponds beside the towpath to give amphibians the still, calm waters they prefer. Also, your gift can encourage dragonflies and damselflies, to dance beside our waters.

How will my gift help?

If you can help us raise just £5,000, we will restore the largest pond this winter. It will mean we can bring in machinery to excavate the current pond to remove invasive plants, buy materials for the new pond lining and restore a water habitat for local wildlife. 

We need to raise this money urgently to complete the works while water wildlife is hibernating or dormant. Then, when spring arrives it will have a new home to move into right away. 

• £20 Could help rescue any wildlife in the pond before works begin.
• £50 Could help remove vegetation from the existing ponds, ahead of restoration.
• £100 Could help our volunteers plant water plants to feed and shelter wildlife.

What will it mean for local people?

By next summer, our ponds on the way up to the Lune Aqueduct will buzz with even more life. Common frogs and toads will soon move in and spawn the tadpoles children love to pond dip for each spring. Damselflies, dragonflies and mayflies will dance beside the water. While bats, birds and butterflies will drop by for a drink and to feed.

Making the ponds even more wildlife-friendly should make this popular route up to Lancaster’s world-famous Lune Aqueduct even more beautiful than ever for everyone who visit our nature reserve throughout the year.

Our aim is to give local pond dippers, walkers, cyclists, anglers and boaters a more beautiful Lune Aqueduct to enjoy.

What will it mean for the Lune Aqueduct?

Together we can make a wonder of the waterways more beautiful than ever. Completed in 1797, the Lune Aqueduct was designed by renowned canal engineer John Rennie. Its dramatic classical columns and arches were paid for by the town’s textile merchants who wanted to put their canal on the map. At 200 metres long and 16 metres high it carries the Lancaster Canal over the River Lune thanks to a span of five wonderful arches. It’s truly a wonder of civil engineering of its time. 

The Lancaster canal crosses the Lune Aqueduct

Today, our charity’s aim is to make this iconic site even more amazing to visit, full of delightful wildlife all year round. Please give all you can to help nature bloom over the Lune this year. 

Thank you.

This project successfully funded on 14th February 2023