Twenty conservation projects are to benefit from the government’s Species Survival Fund announced late last week, which includes Mersey Rivers Trust, who will receive a grant of over £80,000 for work to support restoration of habitats in the Bollin Valley to allow our most vulnerable species to thrive.
The £25 million fund aims to enable the restoration of over 3,300 hectares of critical habitats. Wildlife charities, farmers, and community groups will all recieve grants for their projects. Each will accelerate nature recovery and support precious species.
The 'Freshwater Renaissance' project on the Bollin is a collaboration with Mersey Rivers Trust and the National Trust Riverlands Team who have been successful in securing a 2-year, £4 million programme of work through the Species Survival Fund. The programme of work will be delivered across multiple river catchments at five National Trust places: Cumbria, the Bollin catchment, the Bure catchment, Holnicote and North Devon, and we are very excited to be working with the National Trust on the restoration of habitats on the Bollin.
The programme aims to restore and link up freshwater habitats including small and often undervalued headwater streams, ponds, flushes and ditches; boosting biodiversity and increasing resilience in the landscape to the threat of climate change. Much of the work is based on low-tech nature-based solutions which reduce long term maintenance costs and lend themselves to opportunities for local communities to get involved with action on the ground and building skills and capability to look after these special habitats and species in the long term. Work on the Bollin will focus on the management of flushes, creating wetlands, scrapes and ponds as well as restoring areas of riverbank, re-connecting tributaries to thier floodplain and planting riparian trees. This will happen at various sites along the Bollin valley managed by the Bollin Valley Partnership, whom we are also really looking forwards to working closely with.
Watch this space as the project develops and we start to dig some scrapes and plant trees as there will be opportunities for many people to get involved through bioblitz days, guided walks, childrens activities, school workshops and working parties.
The programme is funded by the Government's Species Survival Fund. The fund was developed by Defra and its Arm's-Length Bodies. It is being delivered by The National Lottery Heritage Fund in partnership with Natural England and the Environment Agency. Freshwater Renaissance is also supported by players of People’s Postcode Lottery.