'Gamechanger' Powys joint wildlife project set to begin

Montgomeryshire, Radnorshire, Shropshire and Herefordshire, Wildlife Trusts are pooling their resources to take on a new project involving two countries, four counties and three major river catchments.

The ‘Wilder Marches’ is “a unique natural and cultural landscape” straddling the Welsh-English border includes the headwaters of the River Lugg, River Teme and River Clun – stretching across approximately 100,000 hectares.

Powys’ wildlife TV presenter Iolo Williams who is also vice president for The Wildlife Trusts, welcomed the news and said: “I adore the Marches and this exciting new project presents a fantastic opportunity to restore this once abundant landscape along the Welsh-English border.

“I’d love to see the fields of the Marches full of curlew, lapwing and yellow hammer, ponds brimming with newts and frogs, and flower-rich hay meadows buzzing with insects once again.

“In Wales we’ve lost iconic birds such as the nightingale and corn bunting – and water voles are now confined to a few isolated sites and are threatened with extinction. Wilder Marches gives us a vision to help nature that’s in crisis and I urge everyone to support this initiative.” 

The trusts have said the area has become “an area of intensive farming as well as extensive forestry plantations where nature is struggling to thrive”.

The project will be working with local communities and landowners and will look to restore and create lost habitats including peatlands, native woodlands and grasslands.  

It also aims to “re-establish natural processes” across river channels, floodplains and wetlands to help reduce the risk of flooding and improve water quality.

They will also be looking to protect rare species, such as pine marten, curlew, and freshwater pearl mussel.  

The project also looks to create “investible landscapes” linking landowners and farmers to emerging green finance opportunities to help generate viable income streams for the rural economy whilst still developing local sustainable food production.

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Dr Rob Stoneman, director of landscape recovery at The Wildlife Trusts, said the project was a “gamechanger”

“It’s important to remember that, as 80 per cent of our land is used for agriculture, society must support farmers to find ways of reaching this exciting target,” said Dr Stoneman.

“It’s vital that we green our rural economy in a way that is fair to farmers and to nature at a time when agriculture subsidy systems change and new trading relationships make parts of British farming less profitable. Wilder Marches is all about making that just transition a reality.” 

Herefordshire farmer, Tony Norman, said the project is vital for the industry going forward.

“With the impending loss of Basic Payments our industry will see a step change in the way we produce food, said Mr Norman.

“We must improve our soils, reduce our costs and 'stack up' other sources of income. Accessing payment for services such as carbon capture and storage, Biodiversity Net Gain and flood control, will enable improvements in linking vital nature habitats, as well as supporting activity such as hedgerow management and tree planting.”