Water for Wildlife - Projects
Otters and Rivers Project
The South East Otters and Rivers Project is a partnership project between the Environment Agency and the Wildlife Trusts of Kent, Sussex and Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Over the past twenty years the project has been liaising with many hundreds of landowners and relevant organisations in promoting natural otter recovery through more sympathetic management of wetland environments.Over the past few years greater emphasis has also been put onto safeguarding Hampshire and Isle of Wight‘s water voles. Find out more about the Otters and Rivers Project.
View footage of Otters passing through the National Trust's City Mill in Winchester - just a 5 minute walk from the Wildlife Trust's Winnall Moors Reserve and the Itchen Navigation.
The STREAM Project
STREAM - Strategic Restoration and Management of the River Avon SAC is a £1 million project centred on the River Avon and Avon Valley in Wiltshire and Hampshire and supported financially by the EC LIFE Nature Programme.
The project began in 2005 and its key objectives include to demonstrate and monitor river restoration at six sites covering 7km, as well as hold a series of public open days to raise awareness of the river system in the local community. Find out more about the STREAM Project.
Living Rivers Project
The Living River project aims to increase awareness and appreciation of the River Avon and its tributaries. It focuses on how the special wildlife of the river has developed alongside the history of the area. Working with local communities from the rivers' headwaters in the Wiltshire Downs to the sea at Christchurch, the project will involve people who live and work in the River Avon catchment in the conservation of its natural heritage. Find out more about the Living Rivers Project.
Managing River Valleys for Bats
An advice leaflet has been produced by Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust and the Environment Agency, which suggests that river valleys may be priority areas for bat conservation.
The leaflet, aimed primarily at landowners and those providing land management advice, stresses that bats need three things - (i) suitable roosts for resting, shelter, breeding and hibernation, (ii) insect-rich feeding areas, and (iii) "flyway" connections between roosts and feeding areas. Studies in Hampshire have suggested that bats feed in greater concentrations in river valleys, probably due to the abundance of insect prey and the fact that rivers act as excellent corridors, linking the landscape.
The leaflet provides practical advice on habitat management to help bats, with sections on grasslands, livestock, arable land, trees, hedges and woodland, and watercourses, ponds and wetlands.
Click to download the Managing River Valleys for Bats leaflet.
