In 2023, thanks to a generous legacy and donor support, we acquired Mere Farm, a 130-acre site that borders with Thompson Common. We could see the huge potential of the land for enhanced habitat creation, especially to encourage the northern pool frog to expand its range from its stronghold at Thompson.

Over the last two years, thanks to funding from Natural England’s Species Recovery Programme Capital Grants Scheme, match-funded by the Banister Trust, we have successfully worked alongside the Woodland Trust and the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust (ARC) to create a tapestry of wildlife habitats on our adjoined land surrounding Thompson Common.

Providing the perfect habitat for the globally rare northern pool frog has been at the heart of this project. With advice from pool frog experts at ARC and our skilled digger operator, we have excavated six ghost pingos at Mere Farm — and just over the fence at the Woodland Trust-owned Green Farm, we have supported the restoration of a further eight.

Enhancing the habitat surrounding the newly restored pingos, with the aim of reinvigorating depleted agricultural soil into species-rich grassland and natural scrub, has also been an important part of our work. Anglian Water Flourishing Environment Fund generously provided the money for a useful piece of kit that helped speed up the process. Conservation grazing will be essential here in the future, so we have installed new fencing to enable this to happen.

‘It’s stunning to see how quickly the new pingos have gone from bare earth and water to having a long list of species from water beetles to pond plants,’ says our Nature Conservation Manager Jon Preston who’s been overseeing the project. ‘It’s only a matter of time before the northern pool frogs take the short leap from Thompson to find new homes next door. And it’s vital that they do, so that this ultra-rare species is more resilient in the future.’

‘This project has been exactly what is needed for pool frog recovery,’ says John Baker from ARC. ‘It has created and restored pond habitat at a landscape scale — and this has only been possible by combining our shared knowledge and expertise. We hope that our work will enable the frogs to expand their local range — creating several, linked populations, improving the resilience of the population reintroduced initially almost ten years ago.’