Coombe Hill Meadows
The site is listed in the ‘Tewkesbury Borough Local Plan to 2011’, adopted March 2006, Appendix 3 'Nature Conservation',' as a Key Wildlife Site (KWS).
Fuller information for Coombe Hill Meadows (grid reference SO874273) is provided in the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust nature reserves handbook. The north meadow part of the reserve is a 55-hectare (140-acre) site of wet grassland and drainage ditches. With the addition of the south meadow the full site (canal and meadows) is a 105-hectare (260-acre) reserve. Historically, management of the area included drainage with some of the meadows ploughed (reducing wildlife interest). Restoration work includes control of drainage to enhance the wildlife interest. Ditches have been restored by widening and re-profiling to improve their wildlife value. The rare True Fox Sedge may be found in some of the ditches.
A number of clay bunds have been put in place. Their purpose is to hold back the water into late summer. Two large shallow pools, called scrapes, have been excavated in the meadows next to the canal as well as a smaller pond next to the public footpath. The 2007 Gloucestershire floods resulted in major remedial work as a result of the devastation caused.
During the winter months the flooded meadows attract wintering wildfowl such as Pintail, Teal and Widgeon, as well as Bewick's Swan. As the floodwater recedes the bare mud around the ditches and scrapes, and the area of fen provide breeding and foraging habitat for waders such as Snipe. The hay meadows at the back of the reserve are ideal for Curlew nesting. In 2010 it is reported that Oystercatchers have bred for the first time, and six pairs of Lapwing chicks have also been seen.
The conservation programme aims to maintain a good wetland habitat which will benefit the important gatherings of birds, invertebrates and plants on the reserve. Conservation work includes hedgerow layering, pollarding of willows and cutting for hay.
Read more about this topic: Coombe Hill Canal, The Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust Reserve
Famous quotes containing the words hill and/or meadows:
““Oh, let’s go up the hill and scare ourselves,
As reckless as the best of them tonight,
By setting fire to all the brush we piled
With pitchy hands to wait for rain or snow....””
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Say, is there Beauty yet to find?
And Certainty? And Quiet kind?
Deep meadows yet, for to forget
The lies, and truths, and pain? . . . oh!
Stands the Church clock at ten to three?
And is there honey still for tea?”
—Rupert Brooke (1887–1915)