WBD1: Manage ponds

No substantive changes have been made to this action for SFI26 (compared with the SFI24 version).

This action’s aim is that there’s a pond containing clear and clean water with:

• a range of semi-aquatic vegetation allowed to develop around the pond edge
• submerged and floating pond plants

The purpose of this is to:

• increase biodiversity
• help improve water quality
• provide habitats for native aquatic species

What you must do

You must manage the pond in a way that can reasonably be expected to achieve this action’s aim, including:

• controlling scrub around the pond edge by lightly cutting it or grazing it with livestock to encourage a range of semi-aquatic vegetation to develop
• trying to avoid livestock trampling and poaching the pond edge which can make the water turbid (cloudy)

You must not:

• deepen or change the pond’s original profile, including filling it in
• artificially introduce plants or animals to the pond, including fish or waterfowl
• allow supplementary feeding of fish
• feed waterfowl – if there’s public access to the pond, try to discourage wildfowl feeding
• add dyes to the water

When to do it

You must do this action from its start date, throughout each year of its 3-year duration.

Where you can do it

You can do this action on eligible ponds located on land that’s:

• an eligible land type (as defined in section 5.1.1 ‘Eligible land types’ in the SFI26 scheme information)
• registered with an eligible land cover on your digital maps
• declared with a land use code which is compatible with the eligible land cover

An eligible pond for this action must be:

• more than 25 square metres up to 2 ha (at the point you apply for an SFI agreement)
• under your management control – this includes the whole of the pond edge and the water in the pond

The following ponds are not eligible for this action:

• ponds used for wastewater, treated effluent discharge activities or road drainage
• sediment ponds, basins, traps or lagoons
• balancing ponds
• ponds which are largely or fully synthetically lined
• ponds which are likely to need fully draining during this action’s duration, such as irrigation ponds and fire water ponds
• aquaculture ponds

Rotational or static

This action is static. This means you must do it at the same location each year of this action’s duration.

Evidence to keep

You must keep evidence to show what you’ve done to complete this action, such as:

• pond management operations at a land parcel level and associated invoices
• photographs and other documentation

If it’s not clear that you’ve done this action in a way that could reasonably be expected to achieve its aim, we may ask for this evidence. You must supply the evidence if we ask for it.