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Launch of the complete Wetland Restoration Manual

7th December, 2005

The Wildlife Trusts have just launched the complete Wetland Restoration Manual, a definitive 660 page guide to best practice in wetland restoration work both in the UK and internationally. The Manual covers management guidance for all types of wetland habitat in the UK, as well as giving background information on wetland ecosystems and conservation.

Britain’s wetlands are home to a huge diversity of plants and animals and a haven for wetland wildlife. However, they are not just important for biodiversity; they also play a major role in storing flood water and can reduce flooding in built-up areas. This is vital - given the changing weather patterns associated with climate change.

Climate change is now an accepted phenomenon, with the risk of rising sea levels, warmer, drier summers and increasingly wet winters. Wetlands play two key roles here. Firstly they act as ‘sponges’, soaking up water and slowing it down in times of flood, allowing it to drain down to groundwater below the soil surface. This reduces the amount that reaches our towns and cities, where it has potentially devastating effects. Secondly, they provide a barrier between the sea and inland development, with salt marshes absorbing the energy of storms and providing a storage area for high tides.

The Water for Wildlife partnership (The Wildlife Trusts, The Environment Agency and the Water Industry through Water UK) is working to restore drained and damaged wetlands and create new ones across the country. The Wetland Restoration Manual will act as an invaluable tool to support this.

In 2004-5, Water for Wildlife created or restored 400 hectares of wetland. This included restoring traditional ‘washlands’ which provide animal grazing in the summers and flood storage in the winter, allowing managed ‘coastal retreat’, putting the bends back in straightened-out rivers, and creating large areas of reedbed.

For more information on local wetland projects, contact your local Wildlife Trust, Environment Agency or water company. For copies of the complete Wetland Restoration Manual, priced at £45, contact NHBS by calling: Tel: 01803 805913, emailing: customer.services@nhbs.co.uk
ir visiting the web site: www.nhbs.com

To order a copy now click on the link below:

http://www.nhbs.com/catalogue/display/t=112676

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Story by Chris Rostron

More Information

Chris Rostron
Water for Wildlife Manager
The Wildlife Trusts
Tel: 01773 881176
Email: CRostron@derbyshirewt.co.uk

Alastair Driver
Environment Agency
Email: alastair.driver@environment-agency.gov.uk
Tel: 07836 600868

Barrie Clarke
Director of Communication
Water UK
1, Queen Anne’s Gate
London
SW1H 9BT

NHBS
2-3, Wills Road
Totnes
Devon
TQ9 5XN
Tel: 01803 805913
Email: customer.services@nhbs.co.uk
Web site: www.nhbs.com

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