Wet Willow Wildlife Project Update Summer & Autumn 2024

Tuesday 3 December 2024

Lancashire Wildlife Trust

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Lancashire Wildlife Trust team members, past and present.

Wet Willow Wildlife volunteers - George Luckett

Wet Willow Wildlife is our Species Survival Fund project enhancing wet willow habitats at landscape scale to support a multitude of species, including the wonderful willow tit, bees, moths, amphibians, mammals, plants, birds and more. Find out what we’ve been up to.

The Conservation Volunteers – Family Nature Fun

Throughout the summer, project partners The Conservation Volunteers have been working with Trafford Hongkongers, a wonderful local group who work to bring families who have moved to Sale from Hong Kong with local families together. Collectively they have been exploring the wet willow wildlife habitats at Woodheys Park in Trafford. Activities have included river dipping in Sinderland Brook and bug hunting in the wet willow woodland. Highlights were finding water scorpions, lots of shrimp and slug eggs. 97 individuals from Hong Kong have been involved in this project. Through these nature-based activities, families from Hong Kong and Trafford made new connections in their community and explored their local greenspace together.

A group of 5 volunteers stood in a woodland next to a wheelbarrow of tools — Wet Willow Wildlife volunteers - George Luckett

Lancashire Wildlife Trust

October saw us begin habitat works for the Wet Willow Wildlife Project that will continue to the end of March 2025. The aim is to improve the wet woodlands in Bolton to support the rapidly declining willow tit. LWT habitat management volunteers have been out at Tonge Valley Woods, Moses Gate Country Park and Thicketford Road Woods carrying out habitat works. Volunteers have been felling small trees and saplings from small areas of wet woodland across the sites. It might seem illogical to be removing trees, but it is necessary to keep the woodland suitable for willow tits. Species such as oak, sycamore, aspen, horse chestnut and ash were targeted, species that are unsuitable for willow tits, as they grow too tall for them to nest in, dry out the woodland and, shade out the scrubby understory.

Find out more about the Wet Willow Wildlife project

Volunteer using loppers to remove a tree sapling in a woodland — Wet Willow Wildlife removing unwanted tree saplings - George Luckett

Clearing these small trees has created room for further habitat works this winter. These include laying of willow trunks, felling of larger trees and planting. Laying limbs involves cutting stems just enough so they fall over but do not fully detach from the tree keeping the stem alive (similar to the way hedges are laid). Willow is a suitable species to lay limbs as it starts to grow branches up from the felled trunk. This creates the scrubby understory willow tits need. Larger trees within the target area will also be felled by contractors in the coming months, to reduce the shading to the woodland floor which will help any newly planted scrub species establish. Our planting activity will occur in the new year and will include planting scrubby species such as grey willow, hazel, hawthorne and elder, species that are favoured by willow tits.

Volunteers also spent time litter picking at Tonge Valley woods, cleaning up the site so members of the public can enjoy a cleaner woodland. In total six bags of litter were collected – great work by the volunteers. The habitat work is off to a great start, across the four sessions run over the past month 14 volunteers took part – and we look forward to working them and many more throughout the project.

Volunteer litter picking in an area of woodland — Wet Willow Wildlife volunteer litter picking - George Luckett

Natural art made using pebbles, leaves, conkers and sticks — Natural art made by participants at a Wet Willow Wildlife community event - Phil Lea

LWT has also been running sessions for the community in Bolton. A wellbeing group has taken part in a sign making workshop; allowing posters about the project to be displayed at habitat management sessions that will take place at different sites over the coming months. Members of the public were invited to attend a pond dipping session at Moses Gate County Park, where they caught a variety of creatures including pond skaters and water boatmen. A natural arts stall was run at Moss Bank Park to raise awareness to the Wet Willow Wildlife Project and encourage local people to connect with nature and get involved in the project.  