New Wetland Creation Project Enhances Wildlife Habitats And Flood Management

A newly completed wetland at Holden Beck, near Bolton by Bowland, is set to transform the landscape by providing vital spaces for struggling wildlife species. Developed by the Clitheroe-based Ribble Rivers Trust as part of their ambitious Room for Rivers programme, this 1.1 million litre wetland covers over 800 square meters of land and has been meticulously designed to support several declining species and alleviate pressures on local waterways.

Sited adjacent to Holden Beck, the new wetland encompasses a range of nature friendly features, including sloped sides to provide easy entrance and exit for wildlife, a variety of depths to suit a multitude of invertebrates, amphibians and rare specialist plants, and islands which provide space for wetland and wading birds. In order to make the site even more environmentally friendly, the wetland is completely free from plastic, with natural site won clay keeping it watertight, rather than a plastic liner.

Usually, Ribble Rivers Trust plants new wetlands with specialist native wetland plants. In this case, the area around the wetland is being allowed to rewild naturally, enabling the Trust to observe which species colonise the new habitat.

Permanent wetlands are increasingly rare across the UK, largely due to land reclamation for agriculture and development. Yet, they are essential to our natural landscape, playing a crucial role in sustaining diverse ecosystems. The newly established Holden Wetlands will serve as a sanctuary for insects, amphibians, birds, and potentially mammals, offering a much-needed refuge for wildlife in the region.

Beyond its ecological importance, the Holden Wetlands also bring significant Natural Flood Management (NFM) benefits. Holden Beck is a critical habitat for rare and endangered species such as Atlantic salmon, brown trout, and European eels. However, heavy rains and flash floods currently threaten these species, particularly during their juvenile stages, by rapidly raising river levels and washing away young fish.

The introduction of this wetland will help mitigate these risks by capturing and slowly releasing excess water, thereby reducing flood peaks and creating a safer environment for vulnerable aquatic life. Furthermore, the NFM benefits extend to the local community, including residents of Holden, Bolton by Bowland, and Sawley, offering a nature-based solution to flood management in areas where traditional flood defences are not feasible.

The project, which has been completed alongside Ben Scott Contracting Ltd, is part of Ribble Rivers Trust’s Room for Rivers programme of works. Funded by the Defra’s Species Survival Fund, and facilitated by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the programme aims to rejuvenate waterways across the Ribble Catchment, including the iconic Fylde coast, Ribble estuary, Ribble Valley, and the wider Ribble catchment.

This three-year project will encompass a diverse range of activities aiming to improve neglected rivers and damaged habitats by removing barriers to fish migration, creating temporary and permanent wetlands, renaturalising and deculverting rivers, invasive species control, reconnecting rivers to their floodplains, and the creation of new wetlands, woodlands, leaky dams, new in river habitat, and peat restoration which will all help to slow water flow and enhance habitat diversity.

These actions have two main aims; the first is to benefit the wildlife that rely on healthy rivers for survival, with a focus on reversing declines in nationally significant species such as smelt, river lamprey, flounder, European eels, Atlantic salmon, and brown trout. The second is providing Natural Flood Management benefits.