Conservation access and recreation 2020-21 wessexwater.co.uk Contents About Wessex Water 1 Our commitment 2 Our duties 2 Our land 3 Delivering our duties 3 Conservation land management 4 A catchment-based approach 10 Engineering and sustainable delivery 12 Eel improvements 13 Invasive non-native species 14 Access and recreation 15 Fishing 17 Partners Programme 18 Water Force 21 Photo: Henley Spiers Henley Photo: Beaver dam – see 'Nature’s engineers' page 7 About Wessex Water Wessex Water is one of 10 regional water and sewerage companies in England and About 80% of the water we supply comes from groundwater sources in Wiltshire Wales. We provide sewerage services to an area of the south west of England that and Dorset. The remaining 20% comes from surface water reservoirs which are includes Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, most of Wiltshire, and parts of Gloucestershire, filled by rainfall and runoff from the catchment. We work in partnership with Hampshire and Devon. Within our region, Bristol Water, Bournemouth Water and organisations and individuals across our region to protect and restore the water Cholderton and District Water Company also supply customers with water. environment as a part of the catchment based approach (CaBA). We work with all the catchment partnerships in the region and host two catchment partnerships, Bristol What area does Wessex Water cover? Avon and Poole Harbour, and co-host the Stour catchment initiative with the Dorset Wildlife Trust. our region our catchments Stroud 8 Cotswold South Gloucestershire Bristol Wessex Water Chippenham North 1 Somerset Bath BANES Devizes 4 Weston-super-Mare Trowbridge Sedgemoor Wiltshire Mendip 9 Warminster West Bridgwater 2 Somerset 7 Salisbury Taunton Taunton 3 Yeovil South Key Somerset North Dorset 1 Bristol Avon East New Forest 5 West Dorset 2 Brue and Axe Dorset 3 Parrett Dorchester Poole 10 6 Key Christchurch 4 North Somerset Purbeck Bournemouth 5 Dorset Stour Water supply and sewerage services area 6 Poole Harbour Sewerage services only Weymouth Weymouth 7 Hampshire Avon and Portland Water supply services only 8 South Gloucestershire 9 West Somerset 10 West Dorset Wessex Water – Conservation, Access and Recreation – 2020-21 1 Our commitment Wessex Water is a long-term business committed to providing high quality, sustainable water and The past 12 months environmental services at a price our customers can have been tough and for afford. many, access to nature and We have a long history of supporting wildlife, the outdoors has been a protecting archaeological remains and working to preserve geological features on our land. We also lifeline. Now more than ever, provide facilities for the public to access our sites, enjoy we have a responsibility to the outdoors and take part in recreational activities. conserve our beautiful, Our conservation, access and recreation work helps us wildlife-rich region for to meet our goal of having a landholding where biodiversity can thrive and where visitors have everyone to enjoy. opportunities for access and recreation in the natural environment. This report summarises some of the progress we have made towards meeting our long-term conservation, access and recreation goals during 2020-21. Our duties We have conservation, access and recreation duties under the Water Industry Act 1991 to: • conserve and enhance wildlife, geology and archaeology • maintain public access to places of natural beauty • make water and land available for recreational purposes. These duties are combined with additional responsibilities under the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006 which requires us to conserve, restore and enhance biodiversity when carrying out our work. Wessex Water – Conservation, Access and Recreation – 2020-21 2 Our land Delivering our duties Our region is environmentally and archaeologically rich, including: We take our responsibility to conserve and enhance wildlife and heritage, and • significant populations of locally, nationally and internationally important species to provide access to the public where possible, extremely seriously. and habitats The coronavirus pandemic – during which nature and the outdoors have been vital • more than 3,000 scheduled ancient monuments to the wellbeing of so many – has highlighted the importance of our conservation, access and recreation work more than ever. • three world heritage sites • more than 40,000 listed buildings Many parts of our business work together to meet our responsibilities in respect of conservation, access and recreation, from engineering and sustainable delivery and • more than 6,000 regionally important wildlife or geological sites operations to our community engagement, environmental solutions, estates, • tens of thousands of archaeological sites of local or regional importance. fisheries and planning teams. Continuing to deliver our duties throughout the Within this region, we own or lease nearly 3,000ha of land. Our sites and pandemic has required resilience, creativity and pragmatism in a challenging landholdings range from small pumping stations to large treatment works and operating context. reservoirs. Barn owl at Clatworthy reservoir, Somerset many parts of our business work together to meet our responsibilities in respect of conservation, access and recreation Wessex Water – Conservation, Access and Recreation – 2020-21 3 Conservation land management Our conservation management programme is underpinned by our company This year we started a five-year project to meet a company performance Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP), which sets out our aims to conserve and commitment to improve the conservation condition of our SSSIs. We have enhance the environment in our region. committed to deliver 91 actions – which have been agreed with Natural England – on our SSSI landholding over the course of the next five years, with a target to deliver Sites of Special Scientific Interest 20% of these actions each year. Many of our most important sites for conservation are designated as Sites of Special We faced some logistical challenges in the face of Covid restrictions but exceeded Scientific Interest (SSSIs). The government’s 25-year Environment Plan sets a target our target, completing 22%. Actions ranged from land management reviews and to restore 75% of protected sites to favourable conservation condition. Nearly 63% the production of new management plans, introducing sustainable management in of our SSSI landholding is considered to be in ‘favourable’ condition by Natural the context of operational demands on the site, to major habitat restoration England with a further 30.5% in ‘unfavourable recovering’ condition. While we are projects. We also provided support to tenants on our SSSIs, facilitating the moving in the right direction, there is still work to be done. implementation of appropriate management through agri-environment agreements or capital works. Highlights included: • restoration work on over 6ha of heathland • planting 120m of native hedgerow to benefit greater horseshoe bats in a Special Area of Conservation • removal of non-native conifer trees to reduce shading on a Special Area of Conservation which is designated in part for Desmoulin’s whorl-snail, a species of European importance which does not tolerate shading of its habitat • forming a partnership with a new tenant, the Exmoor National Park Authority, who will be the custodian of more than 2.5ha of our moorland in a Special Area of Conservation. Exmoor ponies will be delivering conservation grazing on our moorland on South Exmoor SSSI thanks to our new tenant, the Exmoor National Park Authority Wessex Water – Conservation, Access and Recreation – 2020-21 4 case study case study Managing heathland on an Thinking outside the Box Hawthorn service reservoir, near entrance to one of the disused mine operational site Box in Wiltshire, is situated within shafts, where bats emerge from At Corfe Hills service reservoir, operational integrity of the site. A Box Mine SSSI and the Bath and their underground roosts to near Broadstone in Dorset, we had careful management regime to Bradford-on-Avon Bats Special commute to foraging areas, is an excellent opportunity to benefit sand lizards, including Area of Conservation. situated less than 150m west of our undertake some bespoke habitat rotational gorse management and While our site falls within the site. Horseshoe bats navigate by management for a rare species. periodic bare ground creation, has boundaries of the SSSI, the following linear features such as also been instigated. designated feature at this location is hedges and woodland edge habitat. The sand lizard, one of the UK’s Looking at the landscape rarest reptiles, lives in sandy Wessex Water’s network scientist actually subterranean: a network of abandoned mine shafts of national connectivity using aerial heathland areas and sand dunes. Rebecca Burvill said: “It was great to photography, we found that the This species needs plenty of bare, pool the expertise of water quality importance for greater horseshoe bats. connectivity in an east/west sandy soil as it digs burrows for scientists and ecologists at Corfe direction looked poor. So we planted refuge, hibernation and egg laying Hills to deliver a sustainable habitat As our site itself is not the feature of a native, species-rich hedge along and basks in warm, sunny spots. management plan which not only interest used by the bats, when the southern boundary of our site – a However, this bare ground needs to benefits wildlife, but is also considering how to enhance the SSSI significant improvement on a be a fine mosaic with low vegetation consistent with the operational we had to think laterally: literally. An chainlink fence. cover to protect the lizards from requirements and maintenance predation. policies for this water distribution site.” Having reconfirmed historic records Before New hedge planting for greater horseshoe bats After of sand lizards at Corfe Hills with a new record in 2019, we thought over how we could help this species to thrive on our site. There was significant encroachment of laurel and birch on the reservoir sides, which had to be removed to prevent deterioration of structures and subsequent water quality risks.