How the ‘Picasso of ponds’ went from shaping golf courses to making freshwater homes for wildlife (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 week ago by GreyShuck@feddit.uk to c/nature@feddit.uk

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He is known as “the Picasso of ponds” but the tableaux being created by Shaun Hancox in a boggy field in Somerset currently looks more like a building site. An orange and black excavator is rhythmically removing lumpy clay soil and sculpting it into brown banks.

The result looks like a scar of bare earth on what was once green pasture – but the magic happens as soon as rain fills the newly created depressions. Plants seed swiftly, invertebrates and amphibians rapidly find the water, and life explodes.

Britain has lost at least 400,000 ponds over the past century, according to the Freshwater Habitats Trust. A similar number remain but many are overgrown, degraded or affected by nutrient pollution.

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this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2026

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