The golden acre

Creating or rejuvenating a pond is the ultimate conservation quick fix, rapidly providing a rich habitat and sport, as Richard Negus explains

- Richard Negus

Whenever I attend a farm walk organised by the GWCT, I do so with a mixture of emotions. Positive sentiments such as wonderment, revelation and inspiration jostle with less attractive feelings. Frustration and envy largely.

This unwarranted green-eyed state is not due to my begrudging the success of others. Far from it. The more conservation-minded farmers and landowners there are the better in my book. These pangs of jealousy arise because the shoots around which we trudge are already at a point of achievement, while at Flea Barn we are merely at the dawn of our environmental endeavours.

Successful game and wildlife conservation does not happen in the twinkle of an eye. Patience is an essential characteristic of the conservationist and, while I pride myself on being a pragmatist, I have an unrealistic yearning to see the fruits of my labours in short order.

Wildflower blocks and margins require years of tending before they truly become the insect-friendly, grey partridge haven to which we aspire. A newly planted woodland takes a decade or two before it starts to bear habitat fruit. Beetle banks, laid hedges and uncultivated margins need time to mature, like decent sloe gin.

However, there is a salve for those who cannot be patient — the pond. You can sow a veritable sea of cover crops, trap and shoot every predator that the law allows and provide feeding sources with gay abandon, but without water it is all for nothing. Water is, after, all the stuff of life and the added bonus is ponds will bring tangible benefits to your shoot and the creatures that dwell therein months rather than years.