Launch of the Wilder Ouse project

admin
, 09 October 2023
Launch of the Wilder Ouse project
Eurasian Beaver © David Parkyn

Sussex Wildlife Trust is delighted to announce the official launch of ‘Wilder Ouse’ – a project bringing together people across the Ouse River Catchment to help restore nature at the heart of its landscapes and livelihoods of the community.

Wilder Ouse will support local people and communities to make a meaningful contribution to tackling climate change and reversing the decline of important wildlife and natural resources.

It will focus on helping others to deliver nature-based solutions to the impacts of climate change, looking at flooding and drought, and building a resilient and healthy Nature Recovery Network at a landscape scale.

The project plans to deliver numerous benefits for people and wildlife, as well as increasing awareness of the benefits that wildlife provides - with nature-led recovery at the heart of its work. This will include creating wildlife corridors, natural habitat restoration and exploring the potential to restore keystone species such as Beavers. It will also be supporting the delivery of the Weald to Waves Initiative.

Lydia Baxter © Emma Chaplin
Lydia Baxter © Emma Chaplin

Over the next few months, Wilder Ouse Project Officer Lydia Baxter will be meeting local people with a view to working with them and leading some of our first nature recovery projects across the catchment. Lydia Baxter said, ‘I’m delighted to be leading on this exciting project and keen to see what a difference it will make for multiple community groups, landowners and others who want to create havens for wildlife at such a huge scale. I’m especially happy to be driving forward vital nature-based solutions to climate change, and to help enable and empower people to make a difference.’

This project expands on previous work carried out by the Sussex Flow Initiative. Wilder Ouse is a partnership project. Partners include the Environment Agency, the Woodland Trust and Lewes District Council.

More about the Wilder Ouse project here

If you want to volunteer - find out more here 

If you are landowner or community group, find out more here

Read more about Lydia Baxter here

Leave a comment

Comments

  • penny newstead:

    RE-wilding rivers and letting them follow their own course is a wonderful way of improving our environment. And working with local groups of people to find out what they think and would like to see is a great idea! As it will make them feel involved in the improvements and see their hopes and dreams come to true.

    12 Oct 2023 11:06:00

  • John Baker:

    Pleased to hear about this initiative. Have one major concern ie beavers. Anything that obstructs flow (and thus causes silt deposition and blocks free movement of fish) will be catastrophic for some native species of fish – and not just salmonids. The Ouse is well known for its runs of sea trout which spawn in tiny headwaters of the Ouse catchment. Reintroduction of beavers could result in demise of the sea trout from the Ouse.

    12 Oct 2023 13:39:00

  • Sussex Wildlife Trust:

    Exeter University conducted an extremely in-depth feasibility study regarding all aspects of impacts by Beavers to the catchment and the river itself. Beavers are a natural part of our ecology in the UK and at the moment that role they play in the ecosystem is missing. Beavers also live alongside fish species in other places of the world and have never decimated numbers as they live together naturally, therefore adapting to each others’ behaviour. Leaky dams are already implemented by conservationists all over the UK and as a result, we can say without a doubt that the dams the Beavers will create do not permanently impound water, but simply slow the flow – hence the emphasis on the word ‘leaky’, and as such, do not stop the natural movement of fish. In fact, they help to create the necessary habitat for fish species to lay their eggs and have nurseries for young fish where it is safe to spawn and feed. Additionally, sedimentation is key to storing carbon, as well as providing areas of slower flow and increasing macroinvertebrate activity which increases the food sources available to fish on the way up to spawning grounds, such as sea trout. Waterways tend to be redirected, as opposed to being impounded, which we have seen ourselves on test sites where beavers are currently being held elsewhere in the UK, this results in fish being able to take other available routes to their historic spawning sites. The dams eventually get abandoned and unmaintained by the Beavers and so they biodegrade back into the waterways and allow the fish their original routes back anyway. Please feel free to contact the Wilder Ouse Project Officer if you feel you would like more information around this subject, but thank you for reaching out and voicing your concerns also.

  • David Rhodes:

    The Ouse is a wonderful old river full of fish and supporting a diverse wild life, I would love to see Beavers introduced if you can get the land owners to agree it could help with flooding in several area’s specially in the Barcombe area,

    12 Oct 2023 18:58:00

  • Helen Proctor:

    I have been working on restoration of natural habitats and have initiated the involvement of the rangers and volunteers of the SDNPA recently in restoring the grassland flora at Beddingham churchyard. As their resources may be limited, would you be able to support the SDNPA volunteer team please in the Wider Ouse project?

    13 Oct 2023 11:12:00

  • Annabella Ashby:

    Very excited about this initiative and what it can bring to Lewes. Look forward to hearing what progress can be made.

    14 Oct 2023 07:42:00

  • Anne:

    We have an important and extensive wild life corridor of multiple mixed habitats and streams that drain into the Ouse at Barcombe Mills. It has no protected status. We are a local group keen to do more to conserve this. A connected less diverse section has LWS status. No more LWS are being designated as you know. Apparently the second largest cluster of nightingale nest sites in E Sussex. Lots of images of corridor. Etc We collect sightings. We collect and analyse 10 site Bevern stream water samples every month so have over 2 years data. Keen to continue to contribute time. Hope to hear from you. Projects on the Ouse keep popping up so please don’t confuse or waste resources and get together.

    26 Oct 2023 17:16:00

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