The environmental successes of Eythrope partnership project has been celebrated.
A combined 32 hectares of formerly low-biodiversity floodplain have been transformed thanks to the creation of new wetlands alongside the river – firstly on land at Eythrope owned and managed by the Waddesdon Estate, and followed by Manor Farm in Chearsley.
With a water environment grant of £360,450 from the Environment Agency, and expertise from the Freshwater Habitats Trust, at the Eythrope site, the River Thame Conservation Trust took on its first wetland and backwater construction project – and the biggest it had ever commissioned.
Work on the ground at Eythrope Wetland began 2 years ago, with the excavation of more than 11,000 square metres of polluted topsoil to clear the way for creating new wetland habitat at the 10-hectare site.
As well as a backwater – a large pond connected to the river, where young fish can safely grow to maturity – the project also created a variety of shapes and sizes of pools and scrapes, or dips in the ground that can fill with water. All these features encourage species of plants, insects and animals that thrive in wetland habitats.
While the Environment Agency supports many partnership projects improving local water environments, the site is the first of its kind in the Thame catchment.
Environment Agency project manager Anita Appleby said: The Environment Agency is working hard to protect and enhance wetland habitats to benefit people and nature. Together with our partners, we hope that the Eythrope Wetland will become a site to evidence what can be achieved on a formerly low-diversity floodplain.
We also hope that the success of the project will lead to Eythrope Wetland receiving local wildlife site designation in 2023.
To help us adapt to a changing climate, the Environment Agency is also investing £120 million in replacing and restoring coastal habitat that will be lost due to rising sea levels. New habitat created as part of the programme not only improves coastal biodiversity but also acts as a carbon store and can provide natural flood and coastal protection.
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