A European-funded partnership project with Worcestershire County Council, Natural Networks, saw Trust staff working with North Worcestershire Water Management to restore a stretch of the Churchill Brook. A new meandering brook channel was created along with several new ponds to create habitat for wetland wildlife like fish, dragonflies and water plants. An earthen bund was enhanced with plants for pollinating insects. The three acre site also provides flood mitigation for those living nearby.

The Trust has also been working to create wetlands on farmed land along the Bow Brook in the Forest of Feckenham. Small wetland areas on the edge of fields can filter out pollutants from entering water courses, help to reduce pressure on farmers’ pockets and our water bills, offer habitat for wildlife and capture carbon from the atmosphere.

The Trust has worked closely with Bromsgrove District Council, the Environment Agency and Severn Trent Water to create and improve wetland habitat in Sanders Park. As well as improving the area to help water voles, a species that has been lost from 94% of places that it had previously been found in, the new wetland helps with flood alleviation and sequestering and storing carbon.

Avon Meadows Community Wetlands and Local Nature Reserve, owned by Pershore Town Council and Wychavon District Council was created to alleviate flooding from surface water and the River Avon.  Worcestershire Wildlife Trust was involved from the beginning and was instrumental in the design and creation of floodplain meadows and wetland features that are now home to a variety of wildlife and an active community group.

The Trust’s Piper’s Hill and Dodderhill Common nature reserve is one of the best sites in the region for veteran trees. The ancient trees here are amongst the Trust’s 1290 acres of woodland across the county that together sequester an estimated 3700 tonnes of carbon per year. 

The Trust is also looking for sites adjacent to its own nature reserves to ensure that wildlife has space to move and adapt as changes to our climate take hold. This will also allow the Trust to look at restoring and creating more opportunities, including natural regeneration of woodland and tree planting where appropriate so that the land can capture even more carbon.

After buying the site in 2001, the Trust embarked on its largest wetland restoration project at Hill Court Farm near Upton upon Severn. The intensive farmland was situated on what had previously been wildlife-rich wet grassland and in the last 20 years the Trust has gradually been rewetting the fields, seeing breeding lapwing and providing a winter home for thousands of ducks. As well as helping to alleviate downstream flooding, the site also stores and sequesters over 19 tonnes of carbon each year.

An estimated 97% of meadows in England have been lost since the 1940s (20% of those that remain are in Worcestershire) and floodplain meadows are even rarer. The Trust owns and manages more than 300 acres of meadows across the county, providing wildflowers that support insects, birds and mammals as well as locking carbon into the soils and plant roots.

Embarking on the largest restoration project in its history by acquiring 95 acres of arable land at Dropping Well Farm between Kidderminster, Bewdley and Stourport, the Trust is also working with partners to create and restore habitat on adjacent land. Together, the whole area will offer 600 acres of mixed habitat and the largest block of heathland in the county.

The long-term project will see the arable land initially reverted to low-intensity cropping and eventually to heathland like the neighbouring nature reserves owned by the Trust and Wyre Forest District Council. Together with Natural Network partners, Worcestershire County Council, the Trust is also working with the Wyre Forest District Council team to improve habitat on the adjacent Burlish Meadows.

A community engagement officer will work with local people to help them understand more about the importance of this land for wildlife and for the planet as well as how to create space for nature in their own communities.

As well as working with farmers across the county to connect habitat for wildlife, at the Trust's headquarters Lower Smite Farm, the charity has been working to improve the health of the soil and create more areas for predators of crop pests following years of intensive agriculture. Improving and creating space for nature in this way not only aids wildlife and stores more carbon but also means that land managers don't need to use as much pesticides and synthetic fertilisers.

A new project to inspire and encourage communities in Worcester to make space for nature and live more sustainable lives is about to be launched by the Trust. Wilder Worcestershire, funded by the Government’s Green Recovery Challenge Fund, will see the charity build partnerships with community groups, housing associations, schools, faith organisations and residents to help nature to recover and to make access to nature more equal, diverse and inclusive.