Scrapes are shallow, gently sloping dips in the land which hold water during times of heavier rainfall, helping the land to store more water and reduce flood risk. They create great habitats for invertebrates, and so also provide very attractive food sources for wetland birds.
With the help of a team at Lynch Plant Hire doing some skilled digger work, we have created a series of seven scrapes near the River Blythe. The scrapes are connected to each other by a series of narrow stream-like features called swales. Over time the land around the scrapes will transform into areas of grassland and wildflowers, creating even more habitat for wildlife.
We started to see the benefits of the scrapes soon after completing them, as birds flew up to the areas of water and began checking out their new feeding grounds!
Big thanks to the team at Lynch Plant Hire for their time and expertise creating these wetland habitats.
Blythe Alive Again is a wildlife-focussed project to restore and re-naturalise critical areas of the River Blythe. Generously funded by the Environment Agency and Severn Trent, and working alongside Natural England, we will be working from 2022 onwards on over 140 hectares of land within the River Blythe SSSI (Site of special Scientific Interest) area, to create a wide range of habitats.
