Working Wetlands project passes major milestone

The Working Wetlands project led by Devon Wildlife Trust (DWT) has this month passed the £5 million mark for the amount of money it has helped local landowners access in grants from the government. The major milestone has been reached after four years of effort in northern Devon working closely with the landowning community and is thanks to the hard work of the team's seven farm and wildlife advisors with close support from Natural England. The advisors have helped farmers to complete applications for schemes such as Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) which is administered by Natural England and which pays farmers to manage their holdings for the benefit of wildlife. Mark Elliott, Working Wetlands Project Manager said: "This is a major milestone for us and really shows how the local farming community has embraced the project. Traditional farming practices are absolutely vital for maintaining some of our very best wet grasslands, which need management to prevent them reverting to scrub. Fortunately incentives such as HLS and to a lesser extent Entry Level Stewardship exist to reward those farmers who are adopting sensitive farming practices. This represents over 2,600 hectares of wildlife rich grassland being brought into favourable management and is really starting to make headway into recreating a living landscape on the Culm!" HLS is a vital mechanism which can help rebuild lost landscapes such as Culm grassland which has 95% of its area disappear in the past century. As well as annual payments for management, these schemes also include money for fencing and hedge-laying. The Natural England Team Leader for North Devon, Nik Ward, commented that "the partnership working between Natural England and Devon Wildlife Trust is a great example of how conservation effort can be focused to target funding towards land owners with good quality habitats so that they are managed and maintained for future generations to enjoy." Mark added: "Farmers in this area are already struggling to produce cheaper food for the supermarkets, often on very difficult wet ground. As a society we are also increasingly asking them to provide other services such as clean water into our rivers and reservoirs, and a landscape rich in wildlife. Schemes such as this are vital to pay farmers for providing these other benefits. We hope our advisory work will continue for many years to come. Anyone interested in receiving advice or getting involved in the Working Wetlands project should call 01409 221823 or email working.wetlands@devonwildlifetrust.org Working Wetlands advisors are employed by DWT, with funding from a number of sources. One of these is the South West Water "Upstream Thinking " programme which aims to support farmers who are looking after the water draining off their land into rivers and reservoirs downstream . Working Wetlands has also been supported by Tubney Charitable Trust, The Environment Agency, Devon County Council, Devon Waste Management, GrantScape and Natural England.

Working Wetlands Team