Yalden Spring, just a few hundred metres from the High Chart car park, is an incredibly special habitat. With our work on its regeneration well underway, we are seeing very positive signs of it becoming a “wetland heath” area, which is rare indeed and very good news for Limpsfield Common. But we need you to help us by keeping your dogs out of the pond. Here’s a friendly reminder as to why…

Yalden Spring is a natural spring, part of the source of the River Darent, a chalk stream that flows through Kent. As such, it is naturally uncontaminated and we are incredibly lucky to have such a unique habitat, which is why we are doing our utmost to protect it.

Unfortunately, the increase in numbers of dogs (and their humans!) on the Common, and specifically in the pond over recent years has had a detrimental effect on the resident wildlife and we want to do all we can to encourage flora and fauna to return, and bring the spring back to SSSI standards.
[SSSI stands for Site of Special Scientific Interest – areas of land and water that we consider best represent our natural heritage in terms of their flora and fauna.]

As we head towards spring, some you may be very lucky to witness the frog spawning display (usually around the second or third week of February) where thousands of frogs descend on the pond to mate and spawn. This is a brilliant (and noisy) spectacle! (Read our article on the importance of frogs and newts)

Over the last couple of years, since our dead hedging has been in place, we have seen a marked increase in the number of frogs and newts in the pond, which is fantastic for biodiversity. So we need you to help us to protect them, by respecting the hedging, and keeping dogs (and children!) from entering the pond.

How dogs negatively affect the pond

While dogs and their humans may think it’s great fun to splash about in the pond, this can have catastrophic effect on the pond life…

• Injury to pond life: When dogs (or people) enter the pond and splash around, they are severely disturbing and potentially injuring or killing the resident frogs, newts, tadpoles and invertebrates living there (as well as affecting pretty much all other animals that rely on the pond as a habitat).
• Destruction of the pond’s environment for aquatic plants: Dogs also do what is known as “poaching” (treading into the sediment) and severely stir up the silt and clay, the particles of which are then released and persist in the water column, preventing sunlight from penetrating the water and drastically reducing the chance for any aquatic flora to establish, grow and stabilise. 
• Flea and tick chemicals kill pond life: Did you know that any flea and tick treatment applied to dogs within a month of going in the water will leach those chemicals into the water upon entering? These chemicals are indiscriminate, not just targeting fleas and ticks, but also killing off any aquatic invertebrates in the immediate area.

Dogs also get illnesses from ponds. They can pick up all sorts of bacteria and pathogens from ponds, so it’s not a good idea to let them in for their own health anyway.

While we get the inevitable complaints from people who don’t understand the effects their dogs have on our wildlife, most dog walkers we talk to are very understanding and happy their dogs can’t go in the pond, because they also smell a lot better for it!

Other articles on conservation projects and Yalden Spring.