Throughout the summer months of 2024 we’ve been busy in the river Blythe.
We have been working to restore the natural flow and shape of the river, and in turn enhance the habitats it provides for wildlife.
Recreating the natural, curved shape of the river, or as we colloquially put it, ‘re-wiggling’, involves creating semi-circle extensions from the bank into the river.
By doing this, we’re narrowing certain parts of the river, and causing the water to flow at different speeds in different sections. This creates variation in the water and bank habitats, which is great for providing homes and food for a diverse range of fish, invertebrates and wetland birds.
We’re also creating over 20 new scrapes (shallow pools) across our project area. Scrapes are different from ponds in that they don’t contain water all year round, although are usually damp year-round. They’re an important habitat for plant species and help reconnect the river to its floodplain, reducing extreme flooding events.
Tame Force, our volunteer group, along with the Tame Valley Wetlands team, have been creating these river wiggles with chestnut posts and bundles of brash and sticks. The posts are hammered into the river bed to create a semi-circle shapes, then the brash bundles are secured to the posts, forming a wall-like structure.
As the water flows around these new structures, it will naturally come back to a more curved, meandering shape and provide the variation that the river Blythe and its wildlife needs.
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.
