Pond Creation Toolkit

The Pond Creation Toolkit includes a range of factsheets available to freely download. Click on bold text below to go to the right section or see an overview of the Pond Creation Toolkit here.

The Pond Creation Toolkit includes:

Core factsheets 1 to 8 with background information on the project and the best practice principles of clean water pond creation, such as location, design, project planning and implementation.
Habitat factsheets, which present detailed information on designing ponds in different landuses, e.g. woodland, grassland etc.
Advice factsheets, which deal with issues such as birdstrike, planning permission, and ponds in public access areas.
Species dossiers with technical information on creating ponds specifically for over 40 pond-associated BAP species, based on their ecological requirements.
Aggregates factsheets specifically targeted at pond creation on mineral sites.
Case studies

The Pond Creation Toolkit also includes the BAP Species Map, which helps you find out which pond-associated BAP species occur in a particular area (English BAP species only).

Welsh Flag NEW! Pond Creation Toolkit resources now available in Welsh. Please note that not all factsheets are available. Keep checking this page for updates.

Overview of all available Toolkit documents.

Core factsheets:

Factsheet 1 About the Million Ponds Project

Factsheet 2 Clean water ponds for wildlife. Welsh version now available.

Factsheet 3 Outline steps for pond creation for wildlife. Welsh version now available.

Factsheet 4 Pond Design. Welsh version now available.

Factsheet 5 Locating ponds and finding a clean water source. Welsh version now available.

Factsheet 6 Planning pond creation
Factsheet 7 Constructing ponds
Factsheet 8 Managing ponds after creation

Download All Pond Creation Core Toolkit factsheets here as one continuous document (file size 7.85MB)

Habitat factsheets:

Woodlands

Grasslands

Heathland

Wetlands and reedbeds

River floodplains

Advice factsheets:

Wildlife ponds in areas with public access

Wildlife ponds to avoid the risk of birdstrike

Planning permission advice

Project costing advice

Species dossiers:
Creating ponds for-

Plants

Three-lobed Water-crowfoot

Small Fleabane

Invertebrates

One-grooved Diving Beetle

Zircon Reed Beetle

Spangled Water Beetle

Oxbow Diving Beetle

Ground beetles - coming soon

Vertebrates

Common Toad, Great Crested Newt and Grass Snake

The BAP Species Map:

Find out which pond-associated BAP species occur near to you by looking at the BAP Species Map.

Aggregates Toolkit

Aggregates factsheets:

Factsheet A1 Why make ponds on aggregate sites?
Factsheet A2 Pond design principles for biodiversity
Factsheet A3 Pond construction on aggregate sites
Factsheet A4 Best practice guidelines for planners and developers
Factsheet A5 Integrating ponds with aggregate afteruses
Factsheet A6 Great Crested Newts and the aggregate extraction industry - coming soon!

To return to the aggregates page, click here.

Case studies:

NEW St David SAC: a case study to demonstrate how pond creation can be targeted to create new habitat for rarer and threatened species. Welsh version now available.

NEW Broneinon: a case study to demonstrate the creation of floodplain ponds. Welsh version now available.

NEW Llandeilo Common: a case study that highlights the importance of understanding the local geology and hydrology. Welsh version now available.

Eye Landfill: best practice pond design principles applied to compensate schemes for protected species.
Kings Dyke: ongoing habitat creation and management at a restored mineral extraction site.
Nosterfield: retro-fitting ponds and scrapes for wading birds can have benefits for a variety of wetland wildlife.
Darcy lever Gravel Pits: how a partnership led by volunteers benefits freshwater wildlife

Our policy as an organisation is to make all the information we produce open access, without restriction; so all parts of the Million Ponds Project Toolkit are completely free for everyone to download and use.

As a charity, we rely on donations to create resources accessible to all, so please support our work by joining us - you can become a Pond Protector from £5 a month.