Water and wetlands

Wynchnor Washland — part of Staffordshire WT’s Farming Floodplains For the Future project (credit Nick Mott)

Wetlands are vital part of our natural world – the lives of animals, plants and people depend on their health. Wetlands provide food, water, transport networks, help reduce the impacts of extreme weather events and are places of beauty and inspiration.

The Wildlife Trusts have been helping to lead wetland conservation in the UK for many years — working on rivers, streams, lakes, ponds and estuaries.

Wetlands — habitats under pressure

Unfortunately wetlands are some of our most damaged habitats. Nearly half of all floodplains in England and Wales are now separated from their rivers, wetland habitats are highly fragmented, they continue to be lost through drainage and over abstraction, they are impacted by diffuse and point source pollution in both rural and urban areas. Wetlands are being colonised by non-native invasive species and are under pressure from development.

We are living with a legacy of past damage to our wetlands and new challenges threaten what remains. Climate change has already resulted in water temperature increases of 1.5–3°C in many rivers over the past two decades. In some river catchments juvenile populations of […]

Full article: Water and wetlands

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