The Challenges

An Under Used Resource
South Pond is only a step away from Midhurst’s historic town centre and all its vibrant independent shops. The crisscrossing paths around the Pond are much used by the community living nearby, and many people enjoy their lunch hour in the park, or visit with their families to relax and often to feed the ducks.

An Environment At Risk

It is good that so many people enjoy the pond but it is also at risk of pollution and needs continual care by all to ensure it is a thriving natural environment.

Here are some of the challenges:

• The water quality is improving and this has been confirmed by tests we have done in recent years but it needs the care to ensure that it doesn’t become polluted.
• The pond is overcrowded with carp, mallard ducks, Canada geese and black-headed gulls and recently Egyptian Geese.
• The amount of waste material produced, supplemented by artificial feeding, is too great and has created serious pollution including along the pond edge.
• High levels of silt flowing down the stream are deposited in the pond thereby reducing the water flow.

There is still a limited range of pond life, due to a number of causes:

• Too many predators, both fish and waterfowl, consume the small water creatures, such as dragonflies and damselfly larvae and other water invertebrates, so that they don’t easily become established in the pond.
• Effective management is needed to continue to create and care for the right habitats to attract a healthy range of pond life.

There are problems linked to feeding the ducks and geese.

• Feeding the ducks is something we have all enjoyed at times but it can have serious consequences for water birds and the pond environment.
• Read more about the consequences of duck feeding here.

All animals and plants in an ecosystem like South Pond are dependent upon relationships with each other, forming a sustainable community. In a thriving pond, all aspects act together to maintain a successful habitat, and the foundation of it all is good water quality, teaming with invertebrates and microscopic plant and animal life. At South Pond we are striving to create this balanced habitat.