You may not know it, but today is World Wetlands Day! World Wetlands Day has been taking place on 2 February every year since 1997. It marks the date in 1971 when the first multilateral, international conservation convention was signed in the city of Ramsar in Iran. There are now 169 signatories from across the world. The Ramsar Convention was designed to address the alarming rate at which wetlands were being lost across the world and acknowledged that this loss of wetlands is not only damaging to wildlife but to economies and cultures too.
It is a great day therefore to receive the news that MEPs have voted today to keep the Nature Directives - the European legislation that protects many important wildlife sites including wetlands, and under which Leighton Moss is protected.
The wetland here at Leighton Moss is incredibly important for all sorts of wildlife - from bugs and birds to bats and butterflies, we're giving a home to all nature. There is some very special wildlife (such as bitterns) living here that relies on the rare reedbed habitat that Leighton Moss is famous for, and this reedbed takes a lot of hard work to make it a suitable home.
One of the many tasks involved in managing reedbeds, is to cut back areas where vegetation over-grows. This is to create areas of 'edge' where bitterns can come out and fish. This is usually done by our wardens and volunteers. However, the recent weather has been too wet - we've had the highest rainfall for November and December that we have ever had in our reserve records. This has hampered the wardens ability to get out into the reedbed to do this vegetation work. However, even with more stormy weather on the way, we have a solution!
Introducing Truxor - a ride-on, aquatic, tracked, reed cutting machine! We have temporarily enlisted this latest member of the team as it can go into the wettest conditions to cut back the vegetation. It even rakes what it has cut! It is a pretty nifty piece of kit. As you can see, it's special tracks allow it to float in wet conditions.
Truxor by Robin Horner
There are only a few of these specialist machines in the country. Truxor will arrive on Monday and be here for five days, during which time it will be cutting the vegetation round some of the main ditches on the reserve, including the main ditch to Lilian's hide, and several areas around Causeway pool. Whilst it is working, it will mainly be enclosed in the reedbed, but you will likely catch sight of Truxor as it crosses the pools to get into the reeds. This can sometimes mean that the wildlife temporarily moves away, but it soon returns once the machine has passed through. Having said that, when we had some large machinery in to do mud pumping work here in 2013/2014, the wildlife was totally unfazed, with marsh harriers soaring overhead, ducks dabbling around, and the otters fishing whilst the work was going on. If you are planning to vsit us next week, keep an eye out for a sighting of Truxor carrying out its important, wetland work.