Month: January 2021

A year-long river restoration project, including volunteer tree planting, has been completed on Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust’s Woodhouse Washland nature reserve. The works will have a huge impact on local wildlife including improving conditions for fish breeding, creating habitat for wading birds and increasing the breeding opportunities for the protected species great crested newt.

With £34,928 of funding provided by Biffa Award, a multi-million-pound fund that helps to build communities and transform lives through awarding grants to communities and environmental projects across the UK, three in-channel berms have been installed in the River Rother to diversify flow in the canalised river, improving habitat for fish breeding making this area more habitable for them.

Additionally, two earth bunds on the floodplain have been created to hold back surface water and create shallow pools in winter and spring for waterfowl and wading birds, such as lapwing and snipe. The riverbanks have been re-graded to prevent erosion and 200 native trees have been planted by volunteers – they will provide food and shelter for breeding birds and will also provide some shading of the river to provide extra resilience against the impacts of climate change.

Project manager, Nabil Abbas from Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust:

“Thanks to funding from Biffa Award, we’ve been able to make big strides towards restoring the River Rother at Woodhouse Washlands. Following canalisation in the 1950s and decades of heavy industry, the river really was on its knees. The river restoration project has allowed us to put back some of the natural features in the river channel and on its floodplain, helping nature’s recovery here on the Rother”.

Over the past year the project has also delivered on the creation of three new ponds for the protected species great crested newt, which already breed on the reserve. In addition to the project having a positive impact on wildlife it has also engaged the local community; installing a new pond dipping platform, running a series of family-friendly wildlife sessions and erecting an information panel for visitors to the nature reserve.

Rachel Maidment, Biffa Award Grants Manager:

“Biffa Award is delighted to be able to support the Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust’s project at Woodhouse Washland nature reserve. The river restoration works that we have funded will go a long way to improve and enhance the habitats and breeding opportunities for a wide range of wildlife including fish and great crested newts. Now more than ever it is extremely important that we support projects like this which promote nature’s recovery.”

Lancashire Wildlife Trust’s Lunt Meadows Nature Reserve on the bank of the river Alt in Sefton is a uniquely wild site and one of the best spots in Merseyside to see wetland wildlife. Over 2021, this special site is on track to become even better, thanks to generous funding from Biffa Award, a multi-million pound fund that helps to build communities and transform lives through awarding grants to communities and environmental projects across the UK.

Lunt is a haven for wetland birds, offering a mixture of reedbeds, grassland and pools. While many birds do already breed on Lunt, the current habitats can be enhanced further. As well as carrying out traditional practical conservation tasks, staff and volunteers do the important job of monitoring the conditions and wildlife at Lunt.

Habitat quality surveys have shown that Lunt’s grasslands and reedbed are currently too dry for species, such as bitterns, found in these habitats. Bird monitoring over the years has revealed that waders on-site, like lapwings and avocets, prefer to roost and breed on raised islands and narrow slopes, but these areas are currently few and far between.

The £54,000 awarded to the Trust from Biffa Award will allow staff and volunteers to carry out considerable habitat improvements across Lunt Meadows. This will include excavating parts of the site, forming scrapes, islands and channels that will both improve water flow and create more desirable breeding conditions for these birds. 4,000 more reeds will be planted too, contributing towards the goal of creating the largest reedbed in Merseyside.

Rachel Maidment, Biffa Award Grants Manager said:

“Biffa Award is delighted to be able to support the Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside’s project at Lunt Meadows. The improvement works that we have funded will go a long way to improve and enhance the habitats for a wide range of species including birds, fish and insects. Now more than ever it is extremely important that we support projects that promote nature’s recovery.”

The team aren’t stopping there though; aquatic plants will be introduced, helping to oxygenate the water and promote aquatic invertebrates and fish stocks, while wetland wildflowers will be sown to create a meadow, attracting a variety of invertebrates, including beetles, which are a favourite and important food of lapwing chicks. On top of this, there are plans to dig out four new ponds with the aim of increasing the breeding dragonfly population on site.

The hope is that these enhancements will bring Lunt Meadows to the qualifying level of a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) for breeding and wintering bird assemblages, as it is already close to meeting the requirements. Given that only 10 years ago Lunt was still farmland, an SSSI designation would be an amazing and well-deserved achievement for the reserve’s volunteers, a group of local people who give several thousand hours of work annually on-site. The team have already been able to purchase seeds and much-needed new tools to get started.