Bringing Biodiversity Back to the Tarn

We shall shortly be launching a campaign to try and dissuade the public from feeding ducks on the Tarn. The notices have been printed and as soon as they are in place we shall issue a Press Release to the Ilkley Gazette, Ilkley Chat etc.

The notices to be put up have been agreed in consultation with Bradford, so they are a compromise. I think we should have preferred notices that said more prominently ‘Let’s bring life back to the Tarn’ because, fundamentally that is what our campaign is about.

I am told by a neighbour, who grew up as a child in Ilkley, that once there were sticklebacks in the Tarn. I well remember that when my wife and I walked our dog up to the Tarn, in the evenings 30 years ago, in the Spring, one had to be careful not to tread on toads, they were so numerous. Now there are no sticklebacks, no toads, no frogs, no aquatic life whatsoever. And the reason? Quite simply it is the large number of ducks. They have eaten every shred of aquatic plant life, they eat any toad spawn and tadpoles, they stir up the water with their paddling and dibbling so that it is so murky that no plant life could grow in the Tarn. Most importantly of all, after they have been fed, they jump back in the water where they poo. And the duck poo has so polluted the water that it is now incapable of supporting life.

The Tarn, in a natural state, could support perhaps one pair of ducks. This week, when I went up, I counted more than 60. We reckon that the Tarn now has a population of between 60 and 100 ducks. The sole limiting factor on the number is the amount of food that they are given. We currently know of two people who take up large containers of duck food every day. The more people who do that, the more ducks will fly up from the river to take up residence.

When the feeding was confined to a few grandparents taking a few crusts for grandchildren to feed to the ducks (as was the case 30 years ago) there were probably a dozen ducks (and they did not threaten the toad population), but now those well-meaning people who think they are aiding nature by feeding the ducks, have produced a situation where the Tarn is an ecological disaster.

We, in FoIM, are not killjoys. We know that for small children, one of the delights of life is feeding ducks. We hope that small children will continue to have this pleasure. We only ask that they should do it by the river, where the flow of water washes the duck poo away. So, I do urge all our members to feed the ducks by the river and not by the Tarn.

We want the Tarn to be a vibrant and living space on the Moor. If we can dissuade people from duck feeding then we shall consider other methods for getting life back. When the water is clearer, I hope we can consider ways of introducing suitable aquatic plants and then perhaps, in a few years’ time, we might, once more, need to take care when walking around the Tarn on a Spring evening, not to tread on a toad.

Owen Wells

Chair, FoIM

24/2/25