Habitat improvements at WWT Washington Wetland Centre, which will help protect wildlife nesting areas and tackle wetland erosion, have been given a funding boost by support of players of People’s Postcode Lottery.
The project will introduce a new system for filtering water from treatment ponds, which will provide ideal non-permanent wet meadow habitat at WWT Washington; an award-winning wetland nature reserve on the banks of the River Wear.
Previously, storm water runoff at WWT Washington was treated naturally by filtering it through wetlands. Whilst this was effective, water was running too quickly through the wastewater treatment facility resulting in the meadows en route suffering badly from channelling and erosion. This made it difficult to manage the meadows effectively for wetland birds, both due to the impact of the erosion on the habitat and the difficulty of machinery accessing the site to manage vegetation.
Preparation began in March 2016 when a main water outlet was unblocked, immediately highlighting the benefits for wildlife with the successful breeding of lapwing in this area. June has seen the addition of pre-planted coir matting into the bottom treatment pond to increase vegetation. This will reinforce the pond edges and the plants, which are key in filtering the water, helping slow down the speed of water flow through the pond.