Restoration and reconnection of a water meadow to the River Ise

Restoration and reconnection of
a water meadow to the River Ise
floodplain
Dr Robin Field
Nene Valley NIA Land Advisor
and Jane Pearman
Reserves Manager, Wildlife Trust BCN
Water meadow restoration
• Partnership project: River Nene Regional Park,
Wildlife Trust BCN, Wicksteed Park and funded
by Natural England and The Big Lottery
• Shown as a water meadow on early OS maps but
virtually unmanaged for the last 100 years
• Practically impassable due to dense head high
vegetation most of the year
• Restoration started in November 2010 when the
vegetation was cut for the first time in living
memory
In the beginning
The restoration
• Clearance work carried out by a range of volunteers
groups such as: Groundwork Northamptonshire, Wildlife
Trust Volunteers, local community groups, Moulton
College students and Probation Service
• No longer connected to the main river, so EA reconnected
the water meadow via a pipe to the river
• 2400 man hours worked by volunteers between
December 2010 and October 2011
• Aided by the driest period in 100 years
• Hope to feed water to newly dredged boating lake to aid
water quality
Wicksteed Park Nature Reserve
• New nature reserve for the Wildlife Trust
• 23ha site surrounded by housing and roads in the town of
Kettering
• 6.5ha water meadow
• 6.5ha Scheduled Ancient Monument with species rich
grassland
• 3ha wet meadow and 7ha Repton designed parkland
• 10 years funding under HLS plus capital works plan for
restoration
14TH ANNUAL NETWORK CONFERENCE
Scaling up our Aspirations for
River Restoration and
Management
The RRC would like to thank the sponsors of the RRC Annual Conference 2013
who support discounted places
rrc@therrc.co.uk
01234 752979
www.therrc.co.uk