Details of a plan for a million healthy ponds in the UK are being announced to combat decades of neglect.
The charity Pond Conservation says ponds offer more species diversity than any other habitat per square metre.
But 80% of them are polluted - mostly by fertilisers and pesticides from farms, and also by run-off from streets and homes in towns and villages.
Pond Conservation say it is so hard to clean a pond fed by polluted streams that it is better to start afresh.
It wants to create a new generation of clean ponds entirely fed by rain.
The man leading the project, Dr Jeremy Biggs, said the plan was less ambitious than it sounded. He told me: "There are already half-a-million ponds in the UK - that means we only have to create another half-a-million.
"They really are the most wonderful habitat for wildlife that we hope this is going to prove really popular."
I met Jeremy in the heart of the New Forest at a pond he describes as one of the finest in the UK. It is a semi-seasonal pond which in summer resembles a watery bog puddled by horses and cows.
Read on: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19624009
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