Restoring our wetlands

By Ashley White, Conservation Manager

Our wetland creation and restoration works across Wiltshire offer a nature-based solution to mitigate the effects of climate change whilst protecting endangered species.

In the UK, 90% of our wetlands have disappeared over the last 100 years, accompanied by dramatic declines in many of the wildlife species they support. Thanks to the vital support of funders, volunteers and members, we are ramping up our wetland enhancement work across the county to help restore this important habitat in the face of a changing climate.

In addition to providing vital wildlife habitat, wetlands are highly effective at locking up carbon, which means that wetland restoration and expansion provide a nature-based solution to mitigating climate change. It also reduces the impacts of severe weather like drought and heavy rain by storing water in the floodplain and slowing the flow into rivers.

In addition to providing vital wildlife habitat, wetlands are highly effective at locking up carbon.”

Here are just some of the projects we are undertaking to improve, restore and create wetland habitat:

• At Langford Lakes nature reserve in the south of the county, a recently constructed lake, scrape, ditches, wet grassland and a reedbed extension will support a variety of threatened wading birds, including lapwing and bittern.

This work has been supported by a variety of funders: SITA Trust, Viridor Credits Environmental Company, Wiltshire and Swindon Community Foundation, and more recently through the Network for Nature project, funded by National Highways.

• At Smallbrook Meadows nature reserve in Warminster, a river re-meandering project – also delivered through Network for Nature – will reconnect the River Were to the floodplain, providing additional habitat for a population of endangered water vole and slowing the river flow to reduce flood risk.

• At Bay Meadows nature reserve near Marlborough, a series of shallow scrapes will hold water back in the floodplain, allowing it to be released slowly during extended dry periods to help sustain wildlife. This vital work is part of a larger habitat restoration and community engagement project funded by a public appeal, the National Lottery Heritage Fund and The Hills Group, as well as other major donors.

• At Lower Moor Farm nature reserve near Cricklade, a recent project funded by Crapper & Sons has transformed a field into a wetland complex consisting of a series of pools and a reedbed, which will attract declining amphibians and birds.

• Our Water Team has created new wetland features in Southwick Country Park, near Trowbridge, and is working with landowners and farmers to create 20 new ponds a year in order to attract Great Crested Newts and a host of other species, whilst also providing natural flood management benefits.

Photo (above): Wessex Water Guardian

Photo (header): New scrapes and islands in the East Clyffe area and a new Long Pond shelf at Langford Lakes in 2021, CainBio

We have also joined forces with Wessex Water to work towards cleaner rivers. The Wessex Water Guardians Community Project, funded by Wessex Water, recruits and trains local volunteers – Water Guardians – to monitor watercourses in the Hampshire Avon, Bristol Avon and Upper Thames catchment areas. Water Guardians are the Trust’s eyes and ears on the ground, playing an essential role in both the health of their local river and their communities by identifying possible pollution incidents early and reporting them for investigation and remedial action. Water Guardians also play an important part in litter picking and wildlife recording.