Digging for Wildlife
Over the past year, Heath Hands has progressively working on an exciting new project : the creation of a new wildlife pond near our community base, the Hive.
Find out more below.
The new pond in December 2025 (the vegetation still needs to grow back!)
As part of our projects to boost biodiversity around the Parliament Hill area of Hampstead Heath, Heath Hands worked with the City of London’s Ecologist and Conservation teams that it would be beneficial to dig a new wildlife pond. Ponds are key habitats for a range of wildlife, such as amphibians and invertebrates and indirectly support other key species, such as bats.
While there are a number of very large ponds on the Heath, including the famous swimming ponds, as well as wetland areas around the Heath’s underground rivers, such as the Fleet, there are fewer small wildlife ponds, in particular ones suitable for educational purposes, such as running pond-dipping sessions for schools and the public to increase knowledge of the importance of ponds and wetlands for biodiversity. We therefore hope that our new pond will fulfill both aims: boosting biodiversity and serving as an educational resource.
Work on our pond began in December 2024, with our youth volunteers creating the first imprint of the pond and starting to dig the area (see below).
Our youth volunteers (and session leaders) start digging!
We then built a woven willow fence around the pond area to prevent people from falling in(!) and keep dogs out - not only would dogs turn the area to mud, dog flea treatments can be detrimental to pondlife, a particular risk in a small body of water. Many thanks to our Session Leader Molly for sharing her weaving skill and expertise with our volunteers!
Digging efforts continued and then we waited until the Autumn to complete the project, avoiding the dry summer weather.
After testing a couple of lining options and discussing with partner organisations, we decided that the safest option in an area of high public footfall would be to line the pond with concrete and slabs (as well as a pond liner), a technique suggested by Noel from Frognal Gardens. This avoids the risk of the liner being damaged and the pond water leaking out.
Watch our team and volunteers work in November 2025 to line, plant and fill the pond below - many thanks to the team from Frognal Gardens for their help with our project!
In a final stage of work, our youth volunteers helped plant up the pond with a selection of wetland plants, including purple loosestrife, water lily, yellow flag iris, great spearwort, watercress, water forgetmenot, meadowsweet and water mint.
The pond creation is now complete, though the area is very bare! Come and visit in the spring when the pond plants should start growing and the vegetation around the pond has recovered, and keep an eye on our what’s on page for pond dipping sessions later in the year!
