Bardsey Fields Nature Reserve: How volunteers have cut the risk of floods and created a wildlife haven

Project leader for the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust Abigail Mace said while the initiative at East Keswick Wildlife Trust’s Bardsey Fields Nature Reserve comprised introducing natural flood management techniques, it would also boost biodiversity, improve water quality and boost access to a rich and diverse wildlife haven for the local community.

The scheme has been completed just 30 months after the wildlife trust launched a fundraising drive to buy a 24-acre site previously used for sheep grazing between Bardsey Primary Academy and Bardsey Beck.

David Smith, the trust’s chairman, said surveying the site had revealed it was a key part of the local wildlife corridor, “the wild green heart and lungs of the parish”, containing exceptional flora and fauna, so saving it from the threat of development was “absolutely essential”.

Such was the threat of the beck topping its banks and flooding further downstream, that in 2021, the Environment Agency announced Bardsey residents would be included in a flood warning service.

To slow the flow of water, surface water pipes which ran from the school’s roofs, playgrounds and car park under the fields pumping 2.25m gallons of surface water a year into the mill tale below were broken.

This created a natural pathway for the water.

Abigail said the change had also seen a greater degree of water filtration before it reached the beck.

She said: “It’s only a small piece, but it helps reduce flood risk to some degree.

"Instead, that water is allowed to flow across the fields, as it would have done more naturally in the past, but not so much water that it floods the fields."

The project, funded by Yorkshire Water, has seen eight cross slope leaky barriers installed in the reserve to slow the water flow fashioned by volunteers using materials in its Ox Close Wood, including logs, sheep’s wool, as well as willow cuttings from Keswick Marsh Reserve.

Elsewhere, trees and hedges were planted to absorb surface water and leaky barriers were installed in the beck to further slow flows and improve connections to the flood banks following heavy rain.

David said: “Hopefully it will take two weeks instead of two minutes for the water to reach the beck in the future.”

While the barriers on the field have produced soggy areas for wildlife, it also means more water is held in the field at times of drought.

Abigail added: “We have to use concrete in places to defend our houses from flood risk, but that does not necessarily have a good environmental impact, so these natural interventions are also good for the environment, creating habitats for insects and invertebrates to live in and birds to perch on.”

The wildlife trust has introduced a small herd of Dexter cows to conservation graze the field, meaning that the soil will improve over time, thus increasing its ability to store water.

The wildlife trust, which was established 35 years ago and has about 200 members, has stated it will not apply any fertiliser or pesticides on the grass.

The cattle are said to be having a significant impact by removing the thick dense grass to enable wild flowers to flourish.

In addition, the beck has been fenced off so livestock cannot get into the water and nutrient run-off reduced. While parts of the scheme will take years to become fully established, the improvement on water quality in the beck will be instant.

Abigail said: “It wasn’t the cheapest scheme, but it’s replicable across the country. What makes this project particularly special is that the Bardsey wildlife group were willing to do so much in the field. They’re in a lucky place where they aren’t a farmer having to produce a profit from food. On this scale, if you were looking to do it with a farmer, they may have fencing, hedging along the bottom and some of the in-field trees.

“There are opportunities in parks as well. The Don and Rother Rivers Trust has done some great work in a local park doing big scrapes [hollows in the landscape used to temporarily store water during heavy rainfall] and other natural flood management interventions.

"The key is finding partners with land and a willingness to work together. The Bardsey Fields scheme will be great for the environment, but it will be accessible to the local community too.”