Over the past 50 years, the management of the reserve by our wardens and volunteers has been the key to making it an ideal home for nature. My 50th anniversary blog this week is all about some very important work that is about to begin....
In the next few months you might start to notice much more mud appearing around the pool edges, but don’t worry, we haven’t sprung a leak. We’re undergoing a bit of a shake up in the way we manage the reedbed in a bid to restore it back to pristine bittern habitat.
Though we have bitterns here, currently the reedbed is unsuitable for them to breed. They like to have areas of reed growing in deep water, so they can fish in the cover of the reeds. As Leighton Moss has been a reedbed for over 50 years, sediment has built up and areas that should be underwater are now dry as a bone.
In 2006 work was done to remove the sediment layer. The hope was that reed would start to grow at a lower level in these areas, which would mean fish could swim in between the reed stems, providing perfect bittern feeding habitat. Unfortunately this did not happen, and we were left with bare patches of sloppy mud that reed finds very difficult to grow in. We have tried planting areas of reed (and fencing it, to protect against grazing deer and geese), but re-growth has been pretty poor here too.
So, we have had to resort to a rather more drastic technique. We plan to draw the water level down over a period of three years, so that this sloppy mud layer will consolidate and dry out. Hopefully, this will allow the reed to spread out from the edges and grow with much more vigour. Then, when we re-flood the areas, the reed mat will help to bind it together and it will not return to sloppy mud.
View of the reedbed from the Tim Jackson and Grisedale hides end by David Morris
You will start to see more mud appearing around the pool edges – Tim Jackson and Grisedale pools may even dry out completely. Although this will change the viewing spectacle, we do not envisage it will worsen. The large areas of mud will provide fantastic feeding for wading birds (proving spectacular around migration time). The expanse of bare earth should also provide fantastic new areas for plants like marsh marigold, water dock and ragged robin to thrive in – this will provide huge amounts of duck food in the autumn and winter, so their numbers will increase in these areas too.
The ditches are not being dried out, so there will be no impact on fish or otters. Bearded tit and marsh harrier populations will also be unaffected. The reedbed will still have pools at the Lower hide and Public hide end of the site.