Floodplain restoration project launched at 220-acre Aylesbury Vale farm protecting plants and wildlife

A new floodplain restoration project has been launched in Aylesbury Vale to protect wildlife and plants throughout Bucks.

It is hoped the scheme will lead to more rare and endangered wetland plants and animals settling in the Bucks countryside.

A 220-acre organic farm in Chearsley is the chosen spot for the new project.

On completion a new ‘floodplain wetland mosaic’ habitat will be constructed including 15 new seasonal and permanent ponds and a backwater channel connected to the River Thame.

The move comes from Freshwater Habitats Trust, River Thame Conservation Trust and farmer Rose Dale to verse the decline of freshwater wildlife.

The new site will enable freshwater plants and animals to more easily disperse across the landscape and provide resilience to climate change and other environmental pressures, organisers hope.

Called, Manor Farm, the team working on-site has developed a complex of clean, unpolluted, freshwater ponds and shallow pools, creating habitats which are now rare in lowland England.

Each new waterbody has a long ‘drawdown zone’ – the area which gradually dries out through the summer. This marshy habitat is the most diverse part of the ponds and supports water plants like small pondweed and spiked water-milfoil and invertebrates like the Common Darter dragonfly and the Black-bellied Diving Beetle as well as larger animals, including otters and wading birds.

The development also features a backwater, a shallow channel connected to the main river, which will provide shelter and nursery grounds for fish.

Hannah Worker of Freshwater Habitats Trust said: “It’s great to be on site and collaborating with the River Thame Conservation Trust and Rose to develop these new, high quality freshwater and wetland habitats at Manor Farm. We’re aiming to bring back species that would once have flourished here but have been entirely lost, as well as providing a range of habitats for local wildlife.

“The drought this summer highlighted the importance of having waterbodies in the landscape. Our own research has shown that increasingly the number of clean water ponds provides resilience against drought and boosts freshwater biodiversity across whole landscape. We also know that these small waterbodies can support a rich diversity of plant and animal species."