Communities Fund has provided £795 of match funding
Help bring a watercourse back to life
Hailsham, East Sussex, United Kingdom
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Aim
Restore Furnace Brook's lake and stream after pollution devastated the ecosystem. Every donation helps us restore nature.
Who We Are
Furnace Brook is an Ecosystem Restoration Community in the High Weald, East Sussex. 80 acres of ancient farmland, meadow, woodland, and lake - held in stewardship for the community and the natural environment.
We already host aquatic and soil restoration research, rewilding, outdoor education, a micro brewery, biochar production, and regenerative community farming. We are part of a global network of restoration communities, regenerative farms, and eco-villages sharing knowledge across borders.
"The great work of our time is to restore the fundamental ecological structures of our world."— John D. Liu
What Happened
In 2024, Furnace Brook Ecosystem Restoration Community was struck by a devastating pollution incident. Toxic contamination, caused by upstream waste dumping, entered our lake in the High Weald, East Sussex. This released heavy metals and toxins into the water column and collapsed the ecosystem.
What was once a biodiverse woodland stream and lake, turned toxic. The fish died. Plant life disappeared. Causing trauma to the natural world and those who enjoyed it.
We didn't give up. We got to work. And with the help of John D Liu, we have built an interdisciplinary team, and made a plan!
What We Are Doing About It
Over the coming year, we will implement an ecological restoration programme: using nature's own systems to clean the water, rebuild the food web, and bring the lake back to life. Your donation helps us with:
Leaky dams - slowing water flow to reduce erosion and allow natural filtration upstream.
Floating plant islands - floating islands of carefully selected plants (Phragmites, Typha, Iris, Juncus) that absorb heavy metals, remove excess nutrients, and create aerobic zones where beneficial microbes can thrive.
Wetland creation - allowing the land to dictate where water naturally flows, creating new habitat for amphibians, insects, wading birds and other species.
Nature based cleaning of silt - thousands of tons of polluted silt has washed into the lake. We aim to dig out the polluted silt and work with mushrooms (myco-remediation) and biochar to safely remove pollutants, and create fertile soil.
Every intervention is documented, monitored, and measured against the Society for Ecological Restoration's internationally recognised Five-Star Framework. This is science in action - in public, for everyone to learn from.
But This Is Bigger Than One woodland stream and lake
Britain's waterways are in crisis. Our rivers and lakes are among the most polluted in Europe - degraded by agricultural runoff, industrial waste, sewage and decades of neglect. The interventions to fix this exist. What's missing is the knowledge, the confidence, and the accessible frameworks for communities to act.
That's where the second part of this campaign comes in.
Every lesson we learn restoring Furnace Brook will be processed into a practical course: freely available to landowners, community groups, water stewards, and restoration practitioners across the UK. A step-by-step guide to ecological water restoration: what works, what doesn't, what it costs, and how to do it with the community at the centre.
We are not just restoring one lake. We are building the playbook for restoring many.
Your Donation Does Two Things
1. It cleans the water at Furnace Brook - funding the plant islands, leaky dams, wetland creation, and education space that will bring this lake back to life.
2. It creates knowledge that travels - funding the documentation, course development, and open-access materials that allow every community near a degraded waterway to do what we are doing here.
Funding method
All or nothing – this project will only receive pledges if it reaches its target of £50,000 by 24th November 2026 at 8:40am