Over 26km of reens and ditches have been restored (Chris Harris)
Living Levels has been investing in large scale habitat improvement works to restore some of the most degraded and threatened features of the Gwent Levels SSSIs.
Working together at a landscape-scale with many partners, including Local Authorities, private landowners, statutory agencies and wildlife charities, we have:
Restored 26km of open field ditches which had become overgrown and dry. The ditches and reens are noted for their rare aquatic plants, invertebrates, birds and mammals, and provide flood protection to local communities.
Pollarded 150 willow trees to stabilise ditch banks, helping to prevent flooding and restore the traditional landscape character.
Reinstated traditional field grips on farmland. Grips are shallow ditches in the surface of fields and an integral part of the Levels’ ancient drainage system.
Investigated over 30 flytipping offences with specialist teams, which has led to a total of 7 prosecutions (with more in the pipeline) and over £5000 in fines handed out to date.
Worked with landowners and volunteers to restore degraded traditional orchards, once a feature on almost every farm on the Levels. We have surveyed 90 orchards on the Levels, DNA tested hundreds of trees, grafted rare varieties to conserve them, mapped the orchards and labelled the trees, and are working with a group of landowners on orchard management plans to bring them back into favourable condition. There is strong local interest in forming a cooperative to produce local cider and fruit juice.
Restored traditional meadows which, in line with the UK-wide decline of 97% of wildflower meadow habitat since the 1930s, now exist only in fragments on the Levels. Seven landowners have signed up to management agreements to restore wildflower meadows and many orchard owners are also helping to increase the floral diversity around their orchards, including many smallholders, but also some larger commercial farms.
Working across the public and private sectors, bringing more land into sympathetic management for pollinators – to date we have achieved 25ha under new land management agreements which includes several trial areas with NRW on late cutting regimes, helping to ensure forage habitat is available throughout the life cycle of the shrill carder bee from April to October.
New areas now being managed for shrill carder bees, a local target species and one of the UK’s rarest bees. Training and surveying projects involving the public will help to raise awareness of this endangered insect.
Living Levels has focused efforts on land in the worst condition to ensure the biggest impact. Across the areas where we have worked we are already starting to see real benefits, including increased biodiversity, with the return of rare vegetation and invertebrates, water voles, otters and birds in higher numbers on restored ditches, better water quality, and increased water storage capacity.