Colin Gray
Fleet Pond Nature Reserve is Hampshire’s largest freshwater lake and is also an SSSI. A few years ago, the Pond began to be affected by silt washed down from nearby military land which caused the lake to become shallow and the water to become cloudy. This was threatening to the future of the reserve as plants and wildlife began to die and the local ecosystem began to decay.
Colin was the mastermind behind the Clearwater Campaign which highlighted these issues and found the solutions and funding to help restore the pond. He brought together the local Council, the MoD, the Environment Agency and Natural England and persuaded University College London to generate the scientific evidence needed. FPS Patron Chris Packham generously agreed to star in a video to highlight the issues and launch the campaign.
The campaign raised thousands within the year and thanks to the scientific evidence that Colin helped generate, the Environment Agency and Natural England were able to access hundreds of thousands of pounds of government funding. The lake has now started to clear, and wildlife has begun to return, with substantial numbers of birds and insects starting to be seen again. None of this would have been possible without Colin’s determination.