RW Recent Management work

Management work in the winter of 2007-8

Pictures on this page are by volunteer David Cole and Warden, Martin Kerman.

Wetland management

One of the regular winter jobs on the reserve is to cut down the vegetation on the large islands in Lagoon 1 in order to make them more attractive to waders such as Lapwing and Golden Plover. The vegetation could provide cover for predators, so the plovers much prefer open terrain. Before this work can be carried out, the water level in the lagoon needs to drop so, for several days, the plates on the sluice gates are removed and water flows out into the main reservoir.

Causeway construction
In the style of Hereward the Wake?... a causeway to the island

Even with the the water very low, the mud makes access to the islands very difficult, especially for the four-wheeled reciprocating cutter that is used to cut the large areas of vegetation. So last week a method used traditionally in the fens was employed: grass cut from the edges of the lagoon was used to build a causeway to the main island.	Heidi, Dave, Fran, Leigh, Willow and a walking haystack! (perhaps David Duckett?)
Martyn Aspinall and Willow - supervising	Another management task is to roughen the smooth edges of the lagoon, transforming the bare flat mud into a series of puddles and ridges. This is where the small tractor and plough come into their own. When everything is complete the sluices are closed, the water rises again and, hopefully, the birds return. (Photos by David Cole)
Brown's Island The area to the east of Lagoon 1 is known as Brown's Island. It is shown well in the background of the wide picture above ("In the style of Hereward the Wake"). These photos show some of the management work that has been undertaken there, mainly the removal of willow succession. Much of the material removed has to be burned, although some has been used to create the faggots described above. Brown's Island is an area of the reserve where there is no public access and almost no disturbance, particularly during the breeding season. So it was a rare event for the outdoor volunteers to be able to spend a day there, even though the main activity was Dragging and Burning!	Dragging and burning!
Cutting and dragging	Just burning!
	(Photos: Lloyd park)

Weekend workparties and other volunteering

There are many varied opportunities at Rutland Water - please see the Volunteering page of this website for details. Why not come along to a Weekend Work Party?. On the last Sunday every month a group is working somewhere on the Reserve: perhaps coppicing, perhaps hedging, perhaps cutting areas of the reed bed - whatever work needs doing at the time. Please phone Julia on 01572-770651 beforehand and find out exactly where and what the work will be.

Here are pictures of some of the work carried out by volunteers in January and February. On the right is work taking place at Lyndon, coppicing some hazel. (What's coppicing for? Please click here)

Below, willow is being dragged by tractor from the reedbed. The willow was put to good use of course, being moved to other parts of the reserve to thicken hedgelines or create screening.

Below right you can see a small area of reed that has been cut. In Norfolk this sort of treatment creates habitat where Bittern often feed and we hope that this area, which can easily be viewed from Shoveler Hide, may make our reedbed more attractive to this most elusive species.

Weekend workers
Coppicing hazel - a recent weekend workparty

If you click here you will find pictures and explanation of some of this management work carried out during the winter of 2007-8.

Clearng the reedbed
Removing invasive willow

A cleared area of reed
An area of cut reeds

Creating a new wetland

Over the next three years Anglian Water will be creating vast new wetland areas at the west end of the reservoir. There are more details of why this is being done on the Anglian Water website. The first major construction is of a large new lagoon, west of the existing Lagoons 2 and 3.

The pictures show the preliminary work that took place before the major earth moving began.

A new view

There will be a strip of land about 100m wide between Lagoon 3 and the new lagoon. It is important to create an easy flyway to the new lagoon for the wildfowl and so the young oak plantation is being clear-felled and the hedgerow coppiced. All this work has been done by the Reserve's own staff and volunteer team

Wood chipper

Much of the wood that has been removed has been turned into chippings which will be left in piles to create good habitat for reptiles.

Warden, Martin Kerman writes:

The construction of the new lagoons requires that there is a degree of destructive preparation work i.e. tree and hedgerow removal. This is obviously something we try to avoid on a nature reserve so the old hedgerow has been coppiced (cut low to the ground) rather than grubbed up. This will regrow quite rapidly over the next few years and we will manage the hedge to maintain it as a much lower and thicker hedge.

Two of the ash trees have been pollarded (the branches removed leaving the main trunk) to allow regrowth of on older tree whilst minimising the height of the tree.
(More details about pollarding here.)

Below is hedge, newly and expertly laid by Ray Sykes, defining a walkway leading to the old Plover Hide. The plan is to replace this with a double storey hide looking in both directions over the existing Lagoon 3 and the new big lagoon behind it. The area of blackthorn to the right of the hedge will require coppicing to keep the height down to allow a flyway for wildfowl betweenthe two lagoons.

The new hedge leading to Plover Hide

Before the construction work proper was started, 32 channels like the one below were dug in order to check that there are no significant archaeological remains. When the reservoir was constructed 30 years ago, signs of Roman occupation were found and one of the channels did reveal part of a Roman road with a ring and some tiles. However, no major constructions were located and archaeologists are happy for the excavation work to go ahead.

Trial ditches

Raised islands and a Kingfisher bank

Warden, Martin Kerman writes:

The islands on lagoon I have been remodelled and raised in height due to the unusually high water levels last year which caused significant problems for nesting birds, particularly Common Terns. The work has been done to prevent a repeat of this. At the same time a Kingfisher bank was built in front of the visitor centre to encourage, you guessed it, Kingfishers to possibly breed. We also hope they will use the pond as a fishing area which will provide superb views of a striking bird.

The water level was lowered and heavy machinery brought in	A flat top was created with railway sleepers to retain a covering of gravel
The islands when the water level rose again	Kingfisher bank and pond

Management work in the winter of 2007-8

Wetland management

Brown's Island

Weekend workparties and other volunteering

Creating a new wetland

Raised islands and a Kingfisher bank