Pingo (& Ghost) Pond Project

Context

We plan to work with landowners across Ireland (initially in Wexford) to identify and restore a number of pingo/ghost ponds. We will lease or purchase lands for this purpose (initially for 5 years). Ponds have declined by over 50% in the last 100 years. Ponds are disproportionately significant for biodiversity (i.e., small and mighty) and are also important for carbon sequestration.

A Ghost Pond is where a pond used to exist but was drained or filled in during agricultural intensification. Impressions of these former ponds are sometimes noted during aerial photography or can be gleaned from old historical maps. These are most common in the lowlands and in the east.

Pingos are intra-permafrost ice-cored hills, 3–70 m high and 30–1,000 m in diameter. They are typically conical in shape and grow and persist only in permafrost environments, such as the Arctic and subarctic. The term pingo, which in Inuvialuktun means conical hill, has now been accepted as a scientific term in English-language literature. In Ireland Pingos are primarily concentrated in the Southeast, with the greatest concentration in County Wexford. In-fact there were once 200 in the Camaross area (of less than 6 km) and most have been destroyed by agricultural clearance and drainage. Although there are remain Pingos are far west as Tralee.