Wildlife Rich Habitats Fund

1. A live agreement with the Ribble Rivers Trust to enable delivery of elements of the 'Hodder Together for Salmon project'.

This project has been developed over 3 years and involves a combination of capital habitat mitigation works to counteract the physical modifications and land-use stresses to the river.

Under the Wildlife Rich Habitat criteria, the project is for wildlife-rich habitat creation via restoration to achieve "Good ecological status" of the river. Across the project this has to address all elements of river naturalness physical, hydrological, chemical and biological.

In channel interventions include the installation of flow deflectors and berms which help to; increase the diversity of channel habitat and flow, improve water quality downstream by reducing fine sediment transport and increase the availability of suitable substrate for salmonid spawning through the addition of gravel.
Riverside interventions including using watercourse fencing and tree planting/riparian buffers and the associated drinking infrastructure for livestock are also included in the project to reduce the input of pollutants as well as creating wooded habitats and all the associated benefits.

2.  A live agreement with the Abbeystead Estate at Moorbottom for the restoration of priority peatland habitats, and enhancement for waders.

This is a 1-year project where the aim is to restore priority habitats purple moor grass and rush pasture and mire; as well as enhance the site for waders. Changes to the hydrology (through drainage), historic nutrient/chemical additions and intensive grazing have led to the habitat no longer exhibiting the required level of natural functioning and consequently no longer supports the typical flora and fauna expected. The aim is to restore much of the site to a more species-rich habitat, a small remnant of which still exists (photograph below shows the remnant habitat with purple moor-grass, rushes, sedges and a well-developed sphagnum carpet).

Works will include drainage blocking, fencing to allow for the much-needed conservation grazing which will be required to help restore these habitats and rush management through the creation of scrapes for waders which will also enhance an important area for breeding waders.

3. Application in development with United Utilities for priority habitat woodland creation

The aim of this project will be to replace a number of species-poor conifer plantation blocks near Stock's Reservoir with priority habitat native woodland, and to connect some of these blocks with additional wood pasture creation. 

This will be a two-year project, undertaking baseline habitat assessments, plantation bird species mitigation planning and implementation, felling of plantation woodland and fencing this autumn/winter (to March 2027). Re-stocking with native woodland species and the additional creation of wood pasture will take place in year 2. 

The hope is that the project will also benefit an adjacent Biological Heritage Site through improved access to allow for conservation grazing of the site alongside the wood pasture.

 4. Application in development with United Utilities for peatland restoration.

The Forest of Bowland team have undertaken a survey for a degraded peatland site near Catlow Fell (outside of the SSSI) to inform a restoration proposal for the site which is dominated by purple moor grass and currently poses a key wildfire risk. Previous restoration has also already been undertaken higher up the catchment.

Suggested interventions will include bunding, grip and gully blocking and management of the purple moor grass with the aim to inhibit its regrowth and allow for the wildlife-rich blanket bog habitat to re-established. As well as increase the species diversity on site (both flora, which should in turn improve grazing, and fauna, particularly bird and invertebrate life) the project will help to reduce the wildfire risk and hold more water on site particularly during heavy rainfall events.

Developing the projects in these first few months has been difficult, having less than a year to plan and implement these projects, with a number of projects falling through, at least in this first year. The strict funding criteria has also made developing these projects difficult, especially under the timescales and we have fed this back to Defra.

We are continuing to pipeline projects for years 2 and 3 and hope to include more river restoration, woodland restoration and creation and peatland restoration as well as wetland and pond creation and species rich grassland creation in line with the Forest of Bowland Management Plan objectives.