FHT New Forest

FHT New Forest New Forest Freshwater Network is one of the richest areas in Europe for freshwater species.

Working in collaboration our aim is to identify and protect the best, targeting delivery to enhance, restore and create new habitats for freshwater wildlife.

The Spawn Survey is now closed! 🐸 It’s been another fantastic year for the survey, with 2,276 records submitted. This in...
09/06/2026

The Spawn Survey is now closed! 🐸 It’s been another fantastic year for the survey, with 2,276 records submitted. This included 2,114 sightings of Common Frog spawn, and 162 sightings of Common Toad spawn.

57 sightings were reported in the New Forest, which included 52 sightings of frog spawn, 3 sightings of toad spawn, and 2 sightings of both frog and toad spawn.

A huge thank you to everyone who has got involved by keeping an eye out for spawn and sharing your sightings and photos with us. 💚 We will share the records with our friends at Amphibian and Reptile Conservation to be used for research and conservation purposes.

Individually, ponds may be small, but collectively they support more species of macroinvertebrates and plants than lakes...
04/06/2026

Individually, ponds may be small, but collectively they support more species of macroinvertebrates and plants than lakes or rivers, and greater numbers of rare and uncommon species are found in ponds compared with larger waterbodies.

Ponds that are not connected to sources of pollution can also bring clean water back to the landscape.

Ponds are one of the most important freshwater habitats in the New Forest National Park. The Forest’s geology has resulted in a range of different types of ponds able to support rich and varied communities of plants and animals.

The Forest’s ponds are some of the most pristine habitats in the UK, supporting over 275 plant species, equivalent to two thirds of the UK total. Clean water habitats have become increasingly rare across the UK, including the species that depend upon them. Yet in the New Forest, exceptional water quality allows rare species such as Coral Necklace, Fairy Shrimp, and Pillwort to flourish.

Recognised as being part of the largest Important Freshwater Landscape identified so far - areas that support high-quality habitats and freshwater species at a landscape scale – the New Forest is one of the key remaining places for freshwater life. 💙

28/05/2026

⏰ It's the final week of the Spawn Survey, and the last chance to share your photos to win a copy of The Pond Book - the most comprehensive guide available for the creation and management of wildlife ponds. Don’t forget to tag our account!

Anyone can get involved in the survey by recording Common Frog and Common Toad spawn spotted in gardens, community ponds, or in the countryside and adding them to the form on our website by the 31st May. 🐸

Ts&Cs: This giveaway is not affiliated with Meta. The winners will be notified directly by the Freshwater Habitats Trust account. We will never ask you to click on a link or share payment details.

📸 Photo by Jojo Sardina

The New Forest is famous for its freshwater habitats and wetland wildlife. From source to sea, its mosaic of clean-water...
21/05/2026

The New Forest is famous for its freshwater habitats and wetland wildlife. From source to sea, its mosaic of clean-water habitats makes this landscape one of the best places for freshwater life. 🩵

The beauty of the New Forest attracts huge numbers of tourists each year. This allows people to connect with nature, but it can also place pressure on the forest’s habitats and species. Litter, plastic pollution, human and pet excrement and wastewater of any kind can change soil and water quality for the worse as well as pose a serious risk to human health.

To help us to protect the New Forest’s freshwater wildlife, we ask visitors to leave no trace. This golden rule helps to ensure that the Forest’s freshwater habitats remain clean and unpolluted.

On your next visit, leave no trace by:

▪️ Using local toilet facilities
▪️ Taking waste, including pet waste, home or finding the nearest suitable bin

The next time you visit the Forest, plan ahead. Leave nothing behind and take nothing away except for a love of the Forest.

21/05/2026

We’re thrilled that Headstart has today been named as one of the winners of Ofwat's .

Headwaters are vital for supplying clean water and supporting wildlife, yet they have long been overlooked. The new Headstart programme is set to change that. 🪲

Headstart will tackle water pollution and environmental decline by focusing on one of the most neglected parts of England’s river network: headwater streams, ponds and small wetlands.

💦 In six demonstration catchments, we will develop practical ways to improve water quality and protect freshwater wildlife by targeting problems upstream, in headwaters at the top of river systems.

Our CEO Professor Jeremy Biggs says: “Headwaters are where many freshwater problems begin – but they are also where solutions can be most effective. If we want cleaner rivers downstream, we need to start upstream.

“These small waters are largely missing from policy, monitoring and investment, despite being critically important for biodiversity, clean water and climate resilience. Headstart is about changing that.”

Headstart is led by Anglian Water - Love Every Drop and Freshwater Habitats Trust in partnership with a wide range of environmental organisations.

Delivered by Challenge Works with Arup and Isle Utilities, the Water Breakthrough Challenge 6 aims to encourage initiatives that help to tackle the biggest challenges facing the water sector, such as achieving net zero, protecting natural ecosystems and reducing leakage, as well as delivering value to society.

With its pristine freshwaters and low-intensity grazing, the New Forest is one of the few places in the UK where the end...
13/05/2026

With its pristine freshwaters and low-intensity grazing, the New Forest is one of the few places in the UK where the endangered Tadpole Shrimp can thrive.

One of Britain's most endangered animals, Tadpole Shrimp relies on temporary ponds, which periodically dry out. Individuals can grow up to about 10cm in length, have a red brown colour, two long ‘tails’, and many legs and long feelers to help them find food in their muddy homes.

They live in temporary ponds, where their hard carapace (upper shell) protects them from predators - including each other! The eggs can survive long periods of drought. Once the pond fills up again, provided the water is warm enough, the eggs can hatch and the young grow very rapidly and are able to reproduce in just a few weeks. This means they can complete their lifecycle before the pond dries out, and there are sometimes several generations in one year.

This species needs temporary ponds with very low nutrient soil, where grazing animals congregate to provide just the right mix of trampling pressure and dung - a habitat that is now very scarce in the UK. There is a high risk it will become extinct if we don't look after the special places that are critical to its survival.

📸 by Neil Phillips

Dogs in ponds – what’s the impact? 🐾 As an evidence-based organisation, research is at the core of our work and enables ...
26/03/2026

Dogs in ponds – what’s the impact? 🐾

As an evidence-based organisation, research is at the core of our work and enables us to act as leaders in freshwater conservation both locally and nationally. 🔬

One of our most recent research projects is investigating the impact of dogs on ponds. Many of us enjoy spending time exploring the New Forest with our canine companions, but could this be having an unintended impact on freshwater wildlife?

Some recent research suggests that this may be the case, but further investigation is needed. That’s why we’re carrying out research on New Forest ponds, comparing invertebrate and plant assemblages in ponds with frequent dog disturbance to those with little or no evidence of dog access.

Want to follow our findings? Sign up to our New Forest Catchment Partnership newsletter, Waternews, to stay up to date with our ongoing research 👉🏻 https://bit.ly/WaternewsNF

The Government’s Water White Paper, published in January, highlights the need to tackle the impact of offline sewage tre...
18/03/2026

The Government’s Water White Paper, published in January, highlights the need to tackle the impact of offline sewage treatment systems on waterbodies – particularly in rural areas such as the New Forest, where many properties are not covered by the mains sewerage network.

In fact, recent mapping found that around 35% of all properties (residential and business) in the New Forest are ‘offline’.

Why could this pose a threat to New Forest freshwater habitats?

🚽 Wastewater from sewage systems poses a significant risk to freshwater biodiversity due to the excess pollutants within it, such as nitrates and phosphates, which can alter the delicate balance within the freshwater ecosystem.

💩 If not working properly, offline sewage systems can release raw sewage, polluting the water in the ground, in rivers and streams, and at the coast.

🌱 This is a particular cause for concern in the New Forest, where many offline properties are located near sensitive waterbodies of high ecological value which are home to a number of rare species.

So, what can you do?

⭐ If you live in an offline property, make sure that you follow the UK Government’s General Binding Rules for septic tanks and small sewage treatment plants.

⭐ Follow our Best Practice Guidelines to ensure that your system is properly maintained and minimise the impact on your local freshwater environment.

Take a look at our Think Tank webpage for more information 👉🏻 https://freshwaterhabitats.org.uk/projects/think-tank/

10/03/2026

Meet Pillwort, the UK's only native aquatic fern. 🌿

Sadly, like many aquatic plant species, Pillwort is rapidly declining across its European range due to factors such as nutrient enrichment, loss of grazing and habitat loss.

We're lucky to have a stronghold population of Pillwort here in the New Forest, where we still have pockets of clean and unpolluted water as well as a longstanding tradition of livestock grazing.

At Freshwater Habitats Trust, we're supporting species like Pillwort by bringing clean water back into the environment through creating and restoring small waterbodies. 💧

03/03/2026

The New Forest is not only one of the most Important Freshwater Landscapes in the UK, with a huge array of rare species and incredible biodiversity, it’s also one of the few remaining clean water hotspots. 💧🙌🏻

Our WaterBlitz surveys from 2022/23 tested 828 freshwater locations for nitrates and phosphates. The results showed that an impressive 81% of sites contained clean, unpolluted water. Most clean waterbodies were found within the core of the National Park, where pollution input from agriculture and development is minimal.

By comparison, a similar survey in another catchment of the same size found that just 28% of sites contained clean, unpolluted water. Sadly, this figure more accurately reflects the reality of freshwater quality across the UK.

We also found that clean water is more commonly associated with smaller waterbodies such as ponds, with 79% of small waterbodies holding clean water compared to 53% of larger waterbodies.

Smaller waterbodies are often isolated away from pollution inputs, and as such can act as powerful clean water refuges for wildlife. However, our running water network – which is impacted by pollution from multiple sources across the catchment – is showing worrying declines in water quality. Our 2022/23 WaterBlitz data shows a decline in water quality in 6% of the waterbodies we retested from our initial 2016 WaterBlitz. Whilst these declines are present across all waterbodies, they are most prevalent in the running water network.

We’re lucky to have an abundance of small waterbodies within the New Forest – over 1000 mapped ponds alongside countless headwater streams, trackway pools and ditches. The clean water provided by these small but mighty wildlife refuges, paired with the longstanding tradition of livestock grazing, creates the perfect conditions for wildlife to thrive. Despite this, the Forest is still subject to the same pressures as other landscapes – and the impact is starting to show.

Protecting places like the New Forest shows what’s possible, and highlights why bringing back clean water must be a priority everywhere. With freshwater species populations declining at a rate 4 to 6 times greater than their marine and terrestrial counterparts, this is more important now than ever. 🩵🙌🏻

Address

Bury Knowle House, North Place, Headington
Oxford
OX39HY

Telephone

+441865595505

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