Why wetlands? What are the benefits to wildlife, climate and humans?

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My name is Danny Teasdale, and I established a community interest company with my wife Maddy, back in 2018 called Ullswater Catchment Management CIC. We set up the CIC in response to the devastation caused by Storm Desmond which brought 60 inches of rain in the preceding month, followed by another 15 inches of rain in the 48 hours before the flooding. The volume of flood water raised Ullswater lake by nearly 15 feet – no mean feat given that the lake is nearly 9 miles long! Our local communities were devastated, homes and businesses flooded, bridges and roads washed away, livestock drowned, and farmland ruined.

Maddy and I are both from local families who have farmed in the area for generations, but we also both have a deep passion for our wildlife and conservation and believe that the only way we’ll reach biodiversity and net gain targets will be to work with farmers and landowners. We set about working to build more flood resilience into our catchment, by engaging with farmers to find options for flood mitigation that still worked with, or actually benefitted their businesses.

Our work now involves river restoration, ponds and scrapes, soil health, hedgerow planting, wood pasture and creating wetlands.

Glenridding village flooding — Glenridding village 2015 (Danny Teasdale)

Where do wetlands fit into this?

I am not going to declare that we can prevent flooding on a Storm Desmond type event, sediment sampling from the lake showed that it was the largest storm for nearly 600 years, but by working in a joined up collaborative manner, we can absolutely slow and reduce the flow of flood water to downstream communities and hopefully influence peak flow reductions.

It is my opinion that we need to be able to construct reliable, efficient and controlled wetlands which will work for humans and wildlife. We have an ever growing population in a country that is far from self-sufficient in food production, and constructing hard engineered flood defences are extremely costly, and given future climate change predictions they can be inadequate in their protection within decades of completion. There are flood defence schemes that I am aware of that can’t be enlarged any further and are predicted to be overtopped in the future.

In our area of Cumbria, we have multiple different farming businesses ranging from livestock to arable, but within that we also have places with poor marginal land, which is uneconomical to manage for agriculture, and would therefore make sense to look at additional or alternative uses for the land.

The below area is on a commercial dairy farm which had historically been drained, but given the very shallow gradient of the land this was never fully achievable without lots of time and effort. The stream was straightened and moved to the top of this picture, disconnecting the habitat further.

A birds eye view of a wetland with hills in the background — 1 year after completion (Danny Teasdale)

We worked with our local Environment Agency to restore the stream to its natural position and create a sinuous channel throughout with connecting back-waters and scrapes to improve the natural hydrology of the land. Part of the works involved creating small mounds from the excavated material to create diversity and habitat complexity. We then introduced wildflower seed and native grass mixes to allow the land to revegetate.

Within a matter of weeks of completion, the site was inundated with dragonflies, damselflies and broad-bodied chasers. Before too long, snipe began to occupy the wetland, and it is common to flush out 30+ snipe upon walking through the wetland. The farmer also reported seeing barn owls hunting here, something which he hadn’t witnessed for many years.

During very heavy rain, the site is inundated and can be under 1 metre of water. This is a 5 acre field so equates to approximately 20,000 cubic metres of water that is being slowed from flowing downstream.

Prior to restoration, this 5 acre parcel of land offered around 5 days grazing for 5 dairy cows. It still has the same grazing outputs, but now has vastly improved habitat, water storage and financial benefits to the farm than before, win – win surely?

A wetland with lots of surface water, and hills in the background on a grey day — Wetland inundated during heavy rain (Danny Teasdale)

Upland water storage and habitat creation

In a steep catchment such as ours, around Ullswater, there can be a fine balance between marginal, poor agricultural land and some of the most productive, species rich meadows, which are sometimes the most productive farmland available.

The land below is an example of how wetlands have been historically managed at great expense. This is a large wet area of approximately 15 acres which has been ditched, straightened and had large clay tiles laid for nearly 1km to try and dry the land. It hasn’t worked and the cost of maintenance is far too high for the agricultural return here.

For this project we reinstated the stream to its natural position and elevation. This has now wetted the lower lying land, giving huge ecological and water retention benefits, but has dried the higher lying land which is becoming a much more diverse grassland. Within a couple of years native plants colonised the area such as ragged robin and marsh marigold, and for the first time in local memory, we spotted a little egret.

A wetland with a large pool of water — Part of the works involved shallow scrape creation (Danny Teasdale)

The work has created a large scale varied habitat throughout, with vast numbers of amphibians, invertebrates and bird life now. In summer months it is an amazing sight to see as the whole place is alive with life.

During exceptional rainfall events, if the floodplain were inundated to a depth of 50cm, the site has capacity to hold and slow 30,000 cubic metres.

To summarise, we now have multiple projects delivered throughout our catchment, ranging in multiple scales, and we have many projects yet to be delivered.

Our farming community trust us and our delivery model, and we are exceptionally grateful to them for the work on their land. We firmly believe that the projects delivered in partnership and from the ground upwards can deliver real change for people and nature.

For more information please visit www.ucmcic.com or find us on our Instagram or Facebook.