Wildlife

The Large Woody Debris features under construction in Devils Brook. All images: Stephen Oliver

Devil’s Brook river restoration

This winter, Dorset Wildlife Trust has been deliberately installing dead trees in a valley near Ansty, says conservation officer Stephen Oliver

Implementing nature-based solutions to reduce the flood risk from surface water and improving water quality and habitat for wildlife are the two main objectives of river restoration work. Dorset Wildlife Trust’s rivers conservation officer, Stephen Oliver, describes the work involved in the Devil’s Brook project: ‘This exciting partnership project involved two kilometres of river restoration work completed on Devil’s Brook, a 14-kilometre long watercourse rising in the chalk hills near Higher Ansty and flowing south to join the River Piddle near Athelhampton. Much of the river has, over time, been heavily modified, straightened and over-widened, which has significantly reduced the habitat quality and biodiversity of the river.’

Fallen trees

‘A partnership of organisations – including Wessex Water, Wild Trout Trust, Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group Southwest – with the support of Environment Agency and Natural England, has been working with local landowners and managers to

The Devil’s Brook river restoration work covers a two-kilometre reach of the river

look at the opportunities to undertake river restoration work. Trees, whether standing or fallen, provide vital habitat along a watercourse. Unfortunately, modern land management practices mean that fallen trees are often removed. Our Rivers and Wetlands team, with the help of local land managers, trustees and Wessex Water volunteers, have installed 33 Large Woody Debris (LWD) features along a two-kilometre targeted reach to replicate fallen trees. The LWD consists of locally-sourced trees of different shapes that are positioned in the river and pinned in place using chestnut stakes. Fallen trees naturally provide much needed shelter and food for an array of wildlife. But this necessary habitat is often lacking due to our tendency to ‘tidy up’ and remove these features, fearing that they are causing a problem. In fact, nine times out of ten, a fallen tree along a watercourse

The fallen trees were carefully selected and then pinned in place with chestnut stakes The fallen trees are left and biodiversity will naturally increase as the river’s course becomes less uniform

causes no hazards and should be left in place to encourage natural processes along our modified rivers and streams.‘

Riffles and scours

‘The LWD features that have been installed will dramatically transform the current uniform habitat (same flow, same depth) in this area – they will physically change water flow and direction. This will allow gravel riffles and scour pools of varying depths to form, increasing the diversity of wildlife that can make its home in and around the river. ‘Dorset Wildlife Trust staff and volunteers working on site were treated to excellent views of kingfishers and dragonflies, who were quick to perch and admire these newly-installed habitat features! Now that the project has been completed, we will be carefully monitoring for changes to the habitat and wildlife abundance in order to see what impact the work has had.’

Find out more about Dorset Wild Rivers: dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk/ DorsetWildRivers

Hazel catkins are an early source of pollen for bees

Humble catkins

Wildlife writer Jane Adams is trying hard not to be stuck in the January gloom, and instead to look for the signs of new life

It’s a dark, wet, and windy winter day. I sit in my study, sipping a hot mug of tea, listening to the rain clattering on the window. Despite the gloomy weather, I know that just outside, in the hedgerows and woods, new life is stirring. The trouble is, it’s not always easy to see. Last year I tried to go for a halfhour walk every day. But on days like today it usually turns into a quick stomp around the block; head down, collar up, and hands wedged deep into my coat pockets. When I stumble in through the back door and my husband asks if I’ve seen anything on my walk, it’s really no surprise he gets a glare from under my sopping wet fringe. He’s right though – there’s plenty to see if I just look up. January is a time when the stumpy tails of hazel catkins start to lengthen and flower. Each dangling male bloom has around 240 individual flowers, and if you run one through your fingers, it feels like a string of tiny beads. On breezy days, the pepperfine pollen drifts onto neighbouring female flowers, and pollination occurs. Just look further up the same twigs of the dangling clumps of male catkins and you’ll find the delicate, vivid red female blooms

(always above the male flowers to prevent self-pollination). Though slightly tricky to spot, they’re well worth a look. Later in the year, these little red pollinated flowers will develop into clusters of hazelnuts. The nuts provide food for a myriad of wildlife from the aptly named hazel dormouse to birds such as woodpeckers and nuthatches, who wedge the nuts into tree crevices and use their beaks to crack the hard outer shells to reach the soft, Each dangling nutritious nuts within. For now, though, the male bloom golden catkins cascading has around from hedgerows onto 240 individual flowers Dorset’s country lanes are a welcome sight on a cold winter’s day. And if, like me, you’re still stubbornly looking down, try looking under a hazel tree – according to ancient folklore, it’s one of the best places to find a fairy.

Most people overlook the small red female flowers on the hazel tree Images this page: Jane Adams

Hazel (Corylus avellana)

• Hazel is often coppiced, but when left to grow, trees can reach a height of 12m and live for up to 80 years (if coppiced, hazel can live for several hundred years) • Hazel was grown in the

UK for large-scale nut production until the early 1900s. Cultivated varieties (known as cob nuts) are still grown in Kent, but most of our hazelnuts are now imported. • As well as its nuts or ‘cobs’, hazel wood can be twisted or knotted, and historically had many uses; thatching spars, net stakes, waterdivining sticks, hurdles and furniture. • Hazel has a reputation as a magical tree. A hazel rod is supposed to protect against evil spirits, as well as being used as a wand and for water-divining. In some parts of England, hazelnuts were carried as charms and/or held to ward off rheumatism. In

Ireland, hazel was known as the ‘Tree of Knowledge’, and in medieval times it was a symbol of fertility.