Trip reports

"Cotswold Water Park"

Tuesday, 3 February 2009

In February our speaker, Gareth Harris, made it through the snow to give us a fascinating talk on the workings of the Water Park. Regarded originally as "a bunch of rubbish old gravel pits", it has developed into an area of 10,000 hectares of land, half of which is farmland, and 150 lakes - giving 12,000 hectares of open water.

The park was created in 1967, and in 1996 the CWP Society was formed to improve the area. There is a Biodiversity team which co-ordinates surveys and work undertaken in partnership with various agencies. There are 10 habitat plans and 15 species plans currently in place. The 'Head of the Thames' project also aims to link sites of value along the river in a 14 mile corridor from the source down to Lechlade.

Management of the Park involves allowing gravel extraction to continue alongside conservation and archaeological work and controlling housing development within the boundaries, a task made more difficult by the fact that the park falls within 3 counties and 4 planning areas.

Current projects include the propagation of black poplars, monitoring of the bat and dragonfly populations, trapping mink to encourage water voles. Otters and beavers have bred in the park. For the future the Society hopes to create more wetland habitat to re-introduce the bittern and bearded tit.