Image source, Charlie Stubbs / BBCImage caption, Emilia Fahlstromova is one of the rangers working on the flood prevention schemes
ByCharlie Stubbsin Atcham- Published48 minutes ago
A National Trust site in Shropshire are working to try and slow down water, to prevent the catchment from getting flooded.
Rangers and volunteers at Attingham Park, in Atcham, have been building dams, restoring ponds and planting trees, in a bid to use their land as a sponge for the River Severn and River Tern.
It is one of eight projects being supported through the Severn Valley Water Management Scheme and Shropshire Council.
They say this project will help "understand how nature-based solutions" can be used to improve water management and make the Severn catchment resilient to future climate change.
Dams have been made with willow wood from pond restoration projects on the Attingham estate.
Park ranger, Emilia Fahlstromova, said that wood is the best material possible to restore the wetland habitats.
"By putting these dams in, we are hoping to wet in the area up," she added.
"Over the years the area has dried up a lot, which we do not want to see in this area, so we are hoping to see some more wetland species come through."
"Hopefully, it will make the land act like a sponge and hold all that water."
Image source, Charlie Stubbs / BBCImage caption, The dam is one of six rangers at Attingham Park have put in
Project manager, Jane Birch, has been working on more solutions to restore the habitats, like planting hedgerows and making barriers out of wood that trap debris.
She added it is important for landowners to adapt.
"Post World War Two, there was a big emphasis on food production and how can we make as much of the land [as] productive as possible," Birch said.
"That means draining it to create that dry land. But I think we [now] need to look at how we can hold more water on the land, so that we can reduce that flooding risk downstream."
Flooding has become more common across the United Kingdom because of extreme weathers caused by climate change.
BBC Midlands Today's environmental correspondent, David Gregory Kumar, said using natural methods can make a huge difference.
"It solves a lot of problems, even if it is just a simple idea like sticking a few logs into a stream," Gregory Kumar added.
"Places in the West Midlands are trying this out in rivers and tributaries, but not in the massive rivers like the Severn.
"There is this thinking now that if we slow down the water and it does flood a bit into land, that's not necessarily a problem."
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