Ponds & Wetlands for Wildlife

At Legacy Habitat Management, our expert teams have a wealth of experience in creating all types of ponds and water bodies for habitat creation, restoration, biodiversity enrichment, feeding and breeding grounds, or for traditional cattle drinking facilities on farmlands.

Having worked with a wide range of clients, we have developed wildlife habitat ponds as part of larger mitigation projects and biodiversity enhancements for developers. Ponds can be created to mimic the natural profile of existing water bodies, ensuring that wildlife take-up and species diversity is maximised. Alongside the development of a water body, aquatic planting and surrounding non-aquatic planting schemes can be provided to help integrate new wetland features seamlessly into a landscape and to compliment surrounding habitat.

Using our Leister Geostar pond liner welding equipment, our experienced team can install maintenance-free, long life HDPE pond linings of any size or shape. This can be carried out in situ or prefabricated and transported to site ready for installation. We also have experience of other pond lining membranes such as bentonite pond linings and more traditional methods such as puddled clay and stone linings as used in dew ponds.

All of our machine operators hold relevant plant certificates and have knowledge of working in sensitive environments such as SSSI's and where there may be a presence of protected flora and fauna.

At Legacy Habitat Management, we work closely with ecologists, planners & developers on design detail for such projects and provide high quality materials and installation to minimise disruption to your groundwork schedule. It is our aim to help you implement your Biodiversity Net Gain Management Plans on any development project.

Pond & Wetland Background Information

Ponds and wetlands provide crucial habitat and breeding grounds for many of the UK's diverse aquatic, semi-aquatic, plant, and insect species. Much of this important habitat has been lost in recent years due to development, falling water tables, invasive species, or have simply become polluted due to poor management and chemical run-off from intensive agriculture and industry.

With Biodiversity Net Gain now forming a compulsory element of the Environment Bill, pond & wetland creation could become a vital feature of future development plans, helping to achieve measurable positive gains in habitat diversity.

There may also be implications for developers wishing to carry out ground works in the vicinity of ponds and wetlands. Many of the legal acts in place to protect species such as the Great Crested Newt make it an offence to damage, destroy or interfere with their habitat. It may, therefore, be necessary to create additional pond habitat under licence to mitigate against any such habitat loss.

Dew ponds are traditionally built on upland, limestone, agricultural grounds where natural water sources are sparse, to provide drinking water for cattle. They are a common part of the agricultural landscape in fast draining limestone areas such as that of Derbyshire and Yorkshire.