Dowrog Common, a 242 acre nature reserve just outside St Davids in Pembrokeshire, has recently benefitted from funding to implement a network of new ponds and scrapes. Most of the monies for these works came from Amphibian & Reptile Conservation although a generous donation from the Really Wild Festival, a local community led organisation, enabled the project to go that little bit further.

Aquatic plant species will also benefit from these works and rarities such as three lobed water crowfoot and pillwort, which already exist on the common, can now hopefully extend their distribution. Spoil from these excavations was kept on site with banks being erected having a southerly aspect so as to provide ideal basking places for reptiles such as the adder and common lizard.

The work took four days to complete and a tracked JCB with a brave driver was all that was needed. I say brave as there were a couple of near misses as some parts of the reserve were considerably wetter than anticipated! None-the-less, we now have a good number of pools on the reserve which will go some way to enhance the flora and fauna dependent on them.