The Trust's Wilden Marsh is a 37 hectare nature reserve between Kidderminster and Stourport. A true haven for wildlife, most of the nature reserve is not open to the public.
The restoration work includes opening up shaded ditches to allow sunlight to reach the banks, which in turn will support pollinating insects, birds and small mammals. The ditches are open water habitats that are home to wetland plants and aquatic invertebrates and the improvements will re-open corridors through the landscape for species such as the endangered water vole.
Andy Harris, the member of staff responsible for managing the site, explained “We’d like to say a big thank you to Severn Trent because their funding is enabling us to get started on work that we’ve been keen to do for some time.
“Wilden Marsh is a special place but to maintain a habitat where wildlife can thrive sometimes takes more effort than our regular volunteers are able to do.
“Contractors with special machinery will be able to access parts of the marsh in order to coppice and pollard some trees in order to allow light into shaded areas. The trees will grow back and this growth will provide different kinds of habitat to the mature trees on site.
“We’ll also be removing some trees that have fallen into the river and are threatening structures downstream. Sometimes fallen timber in rivers can provide wonderful habitats but in this case they’re also trapping large amounts of rubbish that are being washed downstream from higher in the catchment of the River Stour.”
