We are delighted to announce that we've just started a five-year project to improve our 76 hectares wet grassland grazing marsh at Freiston Shore
At present we rely on intercepting and storing excess winter rainfall to keep our wetlands wet into June. We need to do this in order to provide the right conditions for nesting lapwings and redshanks ('bums on eggs'). These birds rely on flooded ditches and pools to provide food for their chicks. Unfortunately the past few springs have been so dry that we've been struggling to provide enough water. So with help from our Ecologists and Atkins consultants staff on voluntary green leave we have come up with a project to take surplus water from our neighbours, HM Prison - North Sea Camp. Of course, it's never as simple as it seems and we need to ensure that any raising of water levels at North Sea Camp doesn't impact on their extensive vegetable production, so a thorough hydrological investigation is required to determine how much water we can take and when.
Thankfully we have been successful with a funding bid to WREN's Biodiversity Action Fund and have been able to appoint specialists to conduct the required research for us. The investigations will take about a year, at which point we hope to be able to install a wind pump to bring the valuable additional water onto our wetland. This should enable us to keep the wetlands wetter for longer and increase the number of successful nesting lapwings and redshanks, but a bit more rain would also help!
We are very grateful to WREN for supporting this important work. WREN is a not-for-profit business that awards grants, generated by a tax on landfill, to community, environmental and heritage projects within 10 miles of landfill sites owned by Waste Recycling Group Limited. More information about the fund can be found on the WREN Biodiversity Action Fund webpage
John