LIFE3

 

The New Forest supports some of the most important and rare wetland habitats in Europe including bog and riverine woodland, valley mires and wet grasslands. However, generations of human intervention have altered the river courses to drain land in order to plant trees and improve grazing conditions, thereby threatening these habitats.

The LIFE-Nature Fund (from the French acronym for ‘Financial Instrument for the Environment’) was set up by the European Union in 1997 to help pay for conservation work on Natura 2000 sites – Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) and Species Protection Areas for birds (SPA’s). One of LIFE3’s top priorities is to restore internationally important mires.

LIFE3 was a four year funded project set up in 2002 it arose out of a survey conducted by the Environment Agency in 1996, which found that over 100km of New Forest river channels showed signs of degradation. The project is now complete and has succeeded in restoring 604 hectares of rare and vulnerable wetland habitat and has established the long-term sustainability of three of the main water basins in the New Forest, namely the Lymington, Blackwater and Hampshire Avon.  The four-year project has acheived the restoration of 261 hectares of riverine woodland, 18 hectares of bog woodland, 184 hectares of valley mire, 141 hectares of wet grassland and 10km of damaged watercourse through the following methods: 

• re-connecting meanders, replacing bed material to increase roughness and raise the bed level and construction of woody debris dams;
• work in the Ancient & Ornamental woodlands - holly pollarding, removal of non-native species (turkey oak, rhododendron, gaultheria), creating new pollards (ash, oak, beech);
• inclosure work - felling of non-native species along river corridors, removal of western hemlock and rhododendron, mire restoration work. Some habitats will require grazing to bring them into favourable condition. Some fence realignments will take place to facilitate access by commoners’ stock;
• forest lawn management - the project offered an opportunity to undertake much needed work on our lawns including the management of scrub; and,  
• management of selected mires - drains were filled in using a combination of spoil, heather bales and birch faggots, and scrub clearance was undertaken in selected valley mires. These actions have helped to support water levels and prevent further erosion of these habitats.

The four year £2.9 million project concentrated on the Lymington River, Avon Water and Hampshire Avon water basins since these systems together contain the largest areas of riverine and bog woodland within the New Forest, and has successfully repaired the damage to the rivers by implementing the following techniques:

• constructing and installing debris dams – These occur naturally in the forest, e.g. by a tree falling over and forming a partial blockage which then impedes transport of further woody debris, thus forming a woody dam. They play an important role in maintaining water levels in the adjacent wetland areas and slow down water flows;
• "engineering" work aimed to re-install and connect disconnected meanders. Many of the modified river sections still had evidence of previous meanders and the Environment Agency used these as an effective template for their works, diverting water away from the current "drainage" channels and putting the water back into the original river course;
• cutting new channels where watercourses were in evidence, other experts helped with exsisting information to inform the design of these;
• increasing the roughness of the flood plain has ensured timber remains on the forest floor as well as providing an important fuel source for future debris dams;
• raising river bed-levels using spoil originally removed from the channels.

The LIFE3 project is a partnership co-ordinated by Hampshire County Council. It is 40 percent funded by the European Union with the remaining costs coming from the six partner organisations, including Hampshire County Council – Natural England, Environment Agency, Forestry Commission, The National Trust and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

The project team worked closely with the Water Basin Management Forum – a consultative group consisting of representatives from local stakeholder groups who contributed to the development of suitable action plans.

Past management actions of straightening and deepening rivers and creating drainage ditches resulted in substantially increased erosion, and in some places this led to the river being unable to ‘self mend’. Through the LIFE3 project the Environment Agency has reversed these impacts along the most severely damaged stretches of the Black Water and Highland Water where the rivers had lost their ‘self-mending’ ability.

All works across the floodplains have now been completed by the Forestry Commission and the Environment Agency.  The results of these works are more natural, slower flowing river systems that now have the ability to overflow onto their floodplains.

The Life Nature funding has been an effective tool for delivering nature conservation benefits to the New Forest and indirectly has helped to implement the SAC management programme. LIFE3’s actions have resulted in improved conditions for the rivers’ associated wetlands such as riverine and bog woodlands, which will now secure their future, as well as potentially reducing flood risk to properties downstream. The re-instated rivers now flood naturally onto their floodplains, which unlike before can now act as a natural water storage area, giving improved grazing material for ponies and cattle. The LIFE3 works should also promote significant benefits for bird life and the RSPB will be monitoring the increase in population of wading birds. The work should also have an influence on the alluvial invertebrate and macro-invertebrate communities.

For further information please visit the LIFE3 website from where you will be able to download further project publications and the Final Technical Report which summarises the project activities during the four years.