Wetting-up Shrike Shrublands

Restoring various wet features across a grassy shrubland is a key early part of setting the site up for colonisation by wildlife. Key moist and wet features include springs, seepages, shady hollows, and temporary and permanent clean water pools.

Here are some key steps to consider:

• Block subsurface drains: is the site under-drained? If so, dig down and block these off. No need to remove mole drains etc completely - just blog the downslope end. This will enable seepages to reform.

• Block side drains and ditches: Many farmed fields have larger ditches of shallow drains dug at their edges. Block these off with buds to cause water to back up rather than drain away. If you’re lucky to have a larger stream edging or flowing through the site, and plenty of trees and shrubs, introduce Beavers.

• Dig shallow scrapes: these will capture surface water and remain moister for longer into the summer.

• Excavate deeper pools: don’t connect these to any streams carrying run-off - isolated pools fed by springs, seepages and rainfall will be cleaner and better for wildlife. Create lots of pools of varied sizes and depths. Some will dry in late summer; others will gold water year-round.

• Encourage Wild Boar: these will create their own wallows. Although we should all champion Wild Boar, domestic pigs might be an acceptable short-term surrogate.

  All or some of these measures will greatly enhance the longer-term development of wildlife communities within your grassy-shrubland.