Wildlife
The Pang hosts a large quantity of wildlife, and plays its own part towards being a part of the community, especially within Pangbourne itself. The river has a good head of wild brown trout (Salmo trutta) up to 3/4 lb (350 g) and is populated by grayling (Thymallus thymallus), indicating the general good condition of the water.
A concern in this river is the population of American Signal crayfish, which have displaced the native White Clawed Crayfish species. This was illustrated in an episode of Gordon Ramsay's The F-Word.
The Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust owns a nature reserve straddling the Pang at Moor Copse, close to the village of Tidmarsh. A 29 ha (72-acre) extension to the nature reserve, in the area that is believed to have inspired Kenneth Grahame's work, was purchased in December 2006.
In August 2007 a coalition of the WWF, the National Trust and the RSPB called on the British government to adopt their blue print for Water. To publicise their campaign they highlighted the dangers to sites well known through literature such as The Lake District (Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons and Beatrix Potter's Mrs Tiggy-Winkle), the North Kent Marshes (Charles Dickens's Great Expectations) and the River Pang.
Read more about this topic: River Pang
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