Froglife

This wonderful pond dug by our Coalface to Wildspace, Midlands team and The Conservation Volunteers - Birmingham & West Midlands volunteers at Victoria Road Allotments has now been planted up and even has a new froggy resident!

trainees have been assisting in educational sessions with Capel Manor College by exploring the benefits of ponds and blue spaces.

The wildlife and environmental conservation students planted aquatic and bog plants such as hornwort, water forget-me-not, flag Iris, water mint, water avens and cotton grass in a seasonal pond.

They also spotted an abundance of leaping for shelter on site. For the next session, the trainees and Capel Manor students will be working towards creating a new pond habitat.

Comment below on why plants are beneficial to ponds!

The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Natural England, London Borough Of Bromley

Can you identify this amazing ?

It's the UK's rarest native reptile, confined to Southern England. Its diet includes small , , and , which it subdues and dispatches by constriction.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund

Our project team have been carrying out maintenance at including scooping out floating weeds and pond algae, and removing dead leaves so they don’t decompose in the water.

The aim is to keep half the surface clear and ensure the water is well oxygenated.

All vegetation was left on the side of the pond overnight to ensure creatures could return to the water.

Check out our ‘Just add water’ guide which explains how to create and look after a wildlife pond in your garden or school: https://ow.ly/L9Cv50Smilu

As we move into the last week before the election, here is a chance to remind yourself of last weekend’s Restore Nature Now march when over 60,000 people from across the UK and over 400 organisations joined together on the streets of London for the biggest and march that the UK has ever seen.

The march featured on national broadcasts including:

Channel 4: https://ow.ly/l9NV50SsEPT

ITV: https://ow.ly/eUBW50SsEPS

and Sky News: https://ow.ly/X9JV50SsEPR

as well as over 20 national newspaper articles including:

the Telegraph: https://ow.ly/5uUe50SsEPP

and the Daily Mail: https://ow.ly/7wei50SsEPO

achieving more than 150 pieces of media coverage, making this one of the most media-covered marches ever!

One week on from the march you can view the best bits from the day in a highlight video: https://ow.ly/GOO950SsEPU and watch speeches from Liz Bonnin, Chris Packham and Steve Backshall.

You can also catch the full Restore Nature Now live stream on YouTube: https://ow.ly/Rcwt50SsEPQ

With the General Election just days away we need politicians of all parties to make good on their commitments to nature and climate in the next Parliament and put the UK’s environment on a path to recovery by 2030.

The trainees from Froglife’s project are currently getting stuck in to work at Lesnes Abbey Woods!

The work includes improving habitats for people as well as nature – from lopping off overhanging dead branches to uprooting large clumps of non-native plants like bamboo. Tiring – but so satisfying!

Through this work with local volunteers we hope to create spaces where wildlife, including our native and , can thrive, and communities can come together and enjoy them.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund, London Borough of Bexley

Join our team for their 2nd on Saturday 6th July from 10:30am-3:00pm at the Ouse Estuary Nature Reserve, Newhaven!

Take part in wildlife walks, pond dipping, an art workshop and other fun and educational activities for all ages, plus talk to our 'Pond Doctor' to get advice on pond building and wildlife gardening.

This event is free to attend – we hope to see you there!

Schools Without Walls, Ouse Valley Climate Action, The National Lottery Heritage Fund

As well as improving habitats for and , our groups for people living with and their carers get involved in seasonal to connect with the world.

This week they celebrated the summer by creating beautiful artworks using gathered and .

17 leading parliamentarians and environmentalists agreed to be tested for chemicals and over half exceeded a ‘level of concern’ for PFAS (polyfluoroalkyl substances), and many ‘everywhere chemicals’, chromium, and mercury, exceeded normal levels.

PFAS are known to be very persistent (don’t break down) and occur in water sources and soil. Some cause harmful effects in humans including interfering with hormone systems, affecting reproduction and causing cancer.

Heavy metals and other ‘everywhere chemicals’ also occur in water and in many ponds, affecting amphibians’ growth, reproduction and behaviour, outlined in: https://ow.ly/8i4R50SmjFn

We must hope that our new Government targets the control and reduction of these chemicals in the environment and to this end, Wildlife and Countryside Link, (https://ow.ly/f87i50SmjFo) a coalition of over 80 conservation NGOs (including Froglife) have written to the leaders of all political parties to ask them to explain how they will meet the joint challenge of climate change and biodiversity decline were they to be elected.

A path full of tiny toadlets greeted our Trainees on their way to work this week at Lesnes Abbey Woods!

English folklore from the 12th century, when Lesnes Abbey was founded, believed a crossing your path was lucky – and hopefully they’re a sign of good things to come for the London Blue Chain project!

The National Lottery Heritage Fund, London Borough of Bexley

The project team were creating a pond barrier at this month.

Dogs swimming in a pond can have a big impact on the that lives there, including disrupting the mating behaviours of . Spot-on flea treatments can also have a devastating impact on aquatic ecosystems.

Dogs having a dip can cause harm to themselves too , for example, blue-green algae can cause illness and risk of death.

We still want dogs to enjoy water, but we want to keep wildlife as well as the dogs themselves safe when doing so.

For some brilliant alternatives to swimming in wild water, check out our campaign page: https://ow.ly/ZpcZ50Smiee

Take a look at these spectacular found on .

that slow worms are the longest-lived terrestrial in the UK, with an average life span of up to 30 years?

Find out more about these amazing here: https://bit.ly/4eDTGZu

The National Lottery Heritage Fund

There are 3 types of native species of newt in the UK?

Can you name them? Let us know in the comments!

To find out more about our native newt species, visit: https://ow.ly/3BFS50So8ll

Watershed publish online pollution map

One of the main issues affecting our is pollution and many suffer from run-off from agricultural land and links with rivers at times of flooding.

Watershed have just published an online pollution map that shows the huge variety of pollution sources that impact our and the water quality of our rivers.

You can check out your local rivers and streams and see how they measure up against
Environment Agency sampling results and the risk this has for ponds within their catchments and our amphibians.

Maybe ask your local election candidates what they intend to do to improve water quality of our ponds, lakes, rivers and seas to ensure we don’t continue to lose biodiversity?

For more information and guidance on how to use the map check out: https://ow.ly/IAQN50SqNLS

Come and have fun with us this summer!

From free training workshops to survey days, we have activities to suit everyone.

Check out our events page for more details: https://www.froglife.org/events/

The group at Streatham finally said goodbye to the tadpoles they have been helping to rear with Streatham Common Cooperative

The tadpoles have now been returned to their spawning pond in the Rookery Gardens, and with their little head-start they will become tiny froglets in the coming weeks.

In June 2023, the Glasgow Natural History Society held its 4th Herpetological Conference at the University of Glasgow’s Advanced Research Centre and the proceedings of that meeting have just been published.

Read more here: https://ow.ly/zuAg50Smjcg

Our groups for people living with in took a break from their work helping and to go foraging for and made some delicious .

You can find our recipe here: https://ow.ly/S81250SmfRa

Our trainee, Paul and daughter, Lola took to the streets of London for the rally on Saturday marching for our and

An amazing amount of people turned up in solidarity for .

Restore Nature Now

Our group in made placards for the march on Saturday.

They were inspired by issues that were close to their hearts, and made sure that our and species were represented alongside all the other wonderful signs at the event.

Restore Nature Now

Can you guess what this is?

This bright yellow fungus was discovered growing at - it’s called chicken of the woods and grows mainly on oak tree trunks!

This fungus supports a host of including and . Chicken of the woods fungus is edible, unless it is found growing on a poisonous tree, like yew.

Froglife manages nature reserves in not just for the benefit of and , but all kinds of wildlife, including fungi.

What will you discover at our reserves? Why not join us as a volunteer on our regular volunteer days? Find more info here: https://bit.ly/3zcxkhm

Come and join our team at the Ouse Estuary Nature Reserve, Newhaven, on Saturday 6th July 10:30-3:30 for their second !

Take part in many fun and educational activities for all ages, including wildlife walks, identification talks, pond management advice from the Pond Doctor, and more!

Keep an eye out for further details coming soon!

A fantastic day for the Natural World!

Trainee Eve joined the march in London this weekend.

Flying the flag for our and the urgent need to protect their .

The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Restore Nature Now