Hard to believe - but our wetlands are drying out!

Huge quantities of rain have fallen from the sky and this has caused large amounts of flooding across all of our district’s nature reserves.

For us visiting them this is not so good as it has resulted in even the normally driest paths becoming squelchy muddy trails. But in general this is not such a bad thing.

Many of the wetland reserves, as well as providing a haven for wildlife, function to protect many of our homes from the worst of flooding.

The wetlands act a little bit like giant sponges taking in the peak of the flood water and allowing it to sit on the wetland and soak into the marsh ground then over time they allow the excess water to flow back into the rivers.

Wetlands have being doing this for millennia and the wildlife has been evolving into unique species to cope with these regular inundations.

In recent times much of what was wetland 100 years ago has been lost to development and other uses and the unique species have now become rare and threatened.

The larger wetlands around Kidderminster and Stourport are seen to be of national significance for their wildlife.

It may be hard to believe when we look at the deluges we have been having during the last month but these large and significant areas of wetland are suffering from drying out.

The rainfall water from the storms is known as surface water and drains away over time but the wetlands should remain sodden throughout most of the year due to high ground water levels.

As our population has grown, our demands for ground water has risen as this is what we use to drink.

The lack of ground water on these wetlands has started to affect the wetland wildlife and more common and aggressive plants like bramble have started to replace the true wetland specialist like the marsh orchids.

Drinking water is really quite important so it is difficult to restore the ground water, hence, lots of our wetlands now have cunning schemes implemented on them to make more use of the surface water.

This has included the rock ramps in the river at Wilden and the series of earth levies at Hurcott.

Puxton and Stourvale are now under investigation, but, as you may imagine, getting the perfect solution is not easy and takes some careful thought.

It is hoped that a solution will be found soon and we will be able to conserve the wetland’s wildlife and continue to receive the fantastic benefits these ecosystem provides for us.

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