The Biodiversity team, along with a team of volunteers, partners and ranger teams run a number of projects to enhance and develop sites within the Regional Park that help improve the nature conservation value and biodiversity.
The following is a selection of projects that are in progress or recently completed in the Regional Park. This section will be regularly updated to show how the Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) is being implemented throughtout the Regional Park.
Helping House Sparrows in London
Once a regular sight in parks and gardens throughout the UK, numbers of House Sparrows have declined dramatically, particularly in some towns and cities. In Greater London numbers of this once commonplace bird fell by as much as 66% between 1994 and 2003. One of the causes for this is thought to have been a decrease in food available to them in the form of seed and insects. Insects are particularly important for young sparrow chicks.
Lee Valley Regional Park Authority has joined a partnership of eight landowners throughout London to work with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) on the London House Sparrow Parks Project. The project is looking into the best ways to manage London’s parks and green spaces in order to boost sparrow numbers.
Blocks of grassland within these parks are being treated in three different ways.
Long grass – areas are left to grow long providing grass seed for birds to eat and giving insects places to shelter over winter.
Wildflower meadows – mixes of native grasses and flowers are planted to provide seeds, give insects somewhere to live and also to provide more nectar for insects to drink.
‘Wildlife seed’ plots – mixes of flowers and other plants often found around the edges of fields that should provide a lot of seed and also be good for insects.
Next to each of these plots is a control area which is mown short as it would be under normal park management. This allows the amount of insects and birds drawn to the new plots to be compared with those which would normally occur on the site under its present management.
The Lee Valley Regional Park has trial plots at three of its sites: Tottenham Marshes which has two wildflower plots, and Leyton Marsh and the Waterworks nature reserve which both have long grass plots. RSPB staff and volunteers have been monitoring birds using the plots and the insects found there throughout the summer and how much seed the plots are producing for birds in the autumn and winter.
The project will run until 2011 when hopefully the results will be able to give a better idea of how best to change the management of some of London’s parks and open spaces to help make the House Sparrow a common sight once again.
The London House Sparrow Parks Project was established with funding from the SITA Trust. Additional funding has been provided by The Northern Trust and the green roof specialists, ICB Ltd.
Sand Martin tower at the WaterWorks Nature Reserve
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Sand Martins using the new nesting tower
Sand Martins are the smallest of the European martins and swallows. They are agile fliers, catching insects over the water and can often be seen perching on overhead wires or branches. They return to the Lee Valley every summer from their West African wintering grounds. Naturally they would excavate nesting tunnels in riverbanks and cliffs but have adapted readily to using man-made tunnels on the concrete channels of the River Lee, on sites such as Tottenham Marshes.
Last year an innovative Sand Martin tunnel was installed at the WaterWorks Nature Reserve in Leyton. It has proved to be a success with 14 pairs taking up residence within the first breeding season; they have even used the gaps between the pipes as nesting areas.
Over the past 50 years the European population has crashed on two occasions as a result of drought in the birds' African wintering grounds. In the Regional Park, look above the water courses and lakes to see the Sand Martins, often feeding alongside Swallows and Swifts.
Reptiles and Lizards on the move
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Common Lizards at the WaterWorks Nature Reserve
Over 400 Common Lizards are settling in at the WaterWorks Nature Reserve after their home was lost to development. Although Common Lizards are an adaptable species and can be found in habitats ranging from coastal cliffs to upland moors they are extremely vulnerable to habitat loss as a result of development. Unlike birds, which are highly mobile, reptiles and amphibians literally have nowhere to go once the bulldozers move in. Although relocation is far from an ideal situation it is important that, where development does occur on Common Lizard habitat, the animals are moved to somewhere where there is plenty of good quality habitat but no lizards already present.
The Waterworks received 1698 Smooth Newts and 110 Common Toads from Bully Point Pond. The Reserve will act as a temporary home until habitat is available within the Olympic Park to establish populations there. It is important that developers build habitat for these vulnerable animals into the design of developments so that if relocation is necessary, there is somewhere for the displaced animals to move back into.
Wet meadow improvements, Goosefield
Wigeon are often seen feeding on the Goosefield. Copyright North East Images
The Goosefield is an important habitat for waders and wintering duck. Our challenge is to manage the water on site to ensure that there is a network of pools, scrapes and wet meadows. Through a project funded by the Aggregates Levy Sustainability fund the Park Authority has carried out vital work to the meadows. This grant has also paid for the construction of a new Grand Weir hide with views over Holyfield Lake and the Goosefield itself.
Grazing on Walthamstow Marshes
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Cattle grazing at Walthamstow Marshes
Walthamstow Marsh Nature Reserve is one of the last surviving examples of natural marshland in the London area. It was designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) by
Natural England in 1985.
A trial was initiated in 2003 to assess the impact of cattle grazing on vegetation and to see how regular Marsh users reacted to the presence of cattle. The vegetation has responded very well to this form of management and the cattle have become something of a visitor attraction in their own right.
A new layout of seasonal cattle grids, gates and fences has enabled us to introduce grazing on the north marsh for the first time this winter. Not only will this help some of the rarer plant species associated with the marshes, it will also improve our ability to manage problematic invasive species such as Michaelmas Daisy.
One species of particular note is Creeping Marshwort, which is only known from two other sites in the UK. This plant is associated with the grazed edges of the ditch. At the moment the plant is restricted to a small length of ditch bank but it is hoped that careful reprofiling of the ditch bank and the introduction of grazing to the wider reserve will help to increase its cover over the coming years.
The cattle will be returning to the Marshes to graze throughout the coming months until early 2009. The grazing herd come from Lee Valley Park Farm at Nazeing and currently consists of Dexters, Longhorns and Herefords. We are looking to increase the size of the herd over the coming years.
Working for Water Voles
Habitat improvements for Water Voles
Silvermeade is one of the Water Vole strongholds in the Regional Park and it is being managed to enhance this. Over the winter months new ditches have been dug and an existing ditch fenced off to prevent poaching of the banks by cattle that graze the site throughout the summer. This work has been carried out as a part of the Heritage Lottery Fund bid ‘Wetlands for Water Voles and People’ supported by the Authority and led by Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust.
Over the next couple of months look out for new site interpretation focusing on Water Voles and what signs to look out for. There will also be a Water Vole event taking place in September.
Management for Water Voles has also been taking place on Patty Pool Mead, Sewardstone. Here overgrown ditches were cleared and reprofiled to allow vegetation to regenerate and hopefully allow the spread of a small population of Water Voles throughout the site. To speed up the regeneration of the banks vegetated coir rolls were installed. These are pre-planted and it won’t be long before there is plenty of vegetation along the banks, providing food and cover for Water Voles to spread out through the site.