The Bow Brook (c) Harry Green
The Bow Brook Project
The Bow Brook itself is a Local Wildlife Site that stretches from Redditch in the north to the village of Defford, near Pershore, in the south. It flows though and near many small towns and villages en route including the villages of Feckehnam, Hanbury, Crowle and Peopleton and Drakes Broughton. The Bow Brook catchment forms part of the historic ‘Forest of Feckenham’, which was once used as a royal hunting ground.
The catchment has lost many of its original associated habitats and historical features such as traditional meadows; many old ponds and wet fields which would have been homes to rare plants and animals have been lost through drainage. In some places the watercourse has become overgrown with in-channel vegetation and backside cover, elsewhere it has higher than expected levels of pollutants and chemicals from roads, gullies and land drainage. In other parts of the catchment however there are still valuable wildlife areas such as some our own nature reserves, well managed permanent pastures, small wetlands and SSSI’s. The brook corridor as well as being home to wildlife itself, acts as a pathway for migrating and dispersing wildlife such as wading birds and otters, connecting up larger areas of potential habitat. As part of our work we are focusing on reconnecting remaining quality habitats including wetlands, grasslands and hedgerows. We aim to work and engage with communities, land owners and farmers across the whole catchment, to increase not only the quality what habitat is there, but also the brook's potential as a corridor for wildlife connectivity and to enhance and improve wildlife habitat.
The Bow Brook Project is a pilot scheme for the Worcester Wildlife Trust, for the first time we are working on a catchment scale in the hope that we can develop an effective, efficient and robust approach that can be rolled out across Worcestershire watercourses.
Exciting New Partnership
In 2011 we partnered with The Environment Agency (EA) to help them to meet targets for the Water Framework Directive (WFD). This directive is a piece of European Legislation that requires the EA to “deliver good ecological condition’ on its watercourses by 2027.
As with many of the country’s watercourses ecology has declined in the past 50 years through increased drainage, agricultural improvements and urbanization. Widening and deepening of watercourses along with increased inputs from the land (road silts/ soils/ pesticides/ oils/ fertilizers/ sewage) has resulted in unnatural river structures both physically and biologically.
The Environment Agency has provided funding to the Wildlife Trust to facilitate projects through the Bow Brook catchment that will deliver improvements to the water quality and ecology of the brook to improve conditions for invertebrates and fish populations. This funding allows us to extend our focus outside of agri-environment work and towards land owners who may not qualify or wish to join these schemes.
How you can help
We are looking for opportunities to work with local landowners and land managers who are key to enhancing their local wildlife. Together with the EA Worcestershire Wildlife Trust is offering time and funding for projects that will offer improvements to the water quality and ecology of the brook. The scope for this project is wide, working not only on the banks of the Bow Brook and its tributaries but also on the land that makes up the catchment.
If you would like to know more please get in touch with us by calling the trust on 01905 754919 and asking for the Water and Wetlands Officer or email Lucy Wood or Phil Smith
Wetlands West Partnership
We are one of many partners involved in Wetlands West, an ambitious partnership driving wetland restoration in the Severn and Avon river valleys. We work to encourage floodplain restoration through sustainable land management.
We have largely used agri-environment schemes to implement land use changes along the Avon. Working alongside farmers we have helped through agri-envionment schemes to deliver benefits to wildlife including: scrape creation (a seasonally wet shallow depression to provide a food source for waders), wet grassland management, pollarding and pond restoration.
For more information on Wetlands West please go to their website.