Under the Network for Nature programme, peatland bisected by construction of the M6 will be restored in an area of badly damaged blanket bog © Cumbria Wildlife Trust
National Highways and The Wildlife Trusts announce biodiversity boost across North West England
National Highways and The Wildlife Trusts have joined forces to launch a new £6 million Network for Nature programme that will improve habitats across the North West of England benefitting people, nature and wildlife.
The projects will help create, restore and connect places for wildflowers, trees and wildlife, where the environment has been impacted by activities from previous road building. Natural solutions such as wetlands and reedbeds will help filter polluted run-off from roads.
One project will support wild and diverse pollinators including bumblebees, beetles, and moths through planting wildflower meadows close to urban housing estates near Penrith.
Another will see nature connections on the Manchester Mosses by re-creating a nature recovery network across this endangered landscape, which is bisected by the M62. The project will improve, and re-wet lowland raised bog for specialist plants, including sphagnum mosses, improve carbon storage, and offer wildlife stepping stone sites and buffer areas.
To help fight climate change and store carbon, peatland bisected by construction of the M6 will be restored in an area of badly damaged blanket bog, which needs re-wetting. Damaged and dried out peat releases carbon dioxide, increases flood risk, and reduces habitat for wildlife. The work will increase cottongrass, bilberry, cranberry, and bog rosemary and attract golden plover, short-eared owl, and snipe.
National Highways, the company responsible for England’s motorways and major A-roads, has awarded nearly £6 million from its Environment and Wellbeing designated fund into the Network for Nature programme.
Overall, twenty-six biodiversity projects will enhance, restore and create more than 1,700 acres (690 hectares) of woodlands, grasslands, peatlands and wetlands across every region of England, with 5 sitting in the North West of England.
In England, the roadside estate is vast and yet is adjacent to some of our most precious habitats. When situated alongside linear infrastructure, such as motorways, habitats can create crucial corridors for pollinating insects, birds and small mammals, enabling wildlife to move through the wider landscape.
Alan Shepherd, National Highways’ Regional Director for the North West, said: “We’re delighted the region is sharing in this new Network for Nature fund.
“Over the last few years we’ve led the way in the North West in demonstrating how we can improve bio-diversity alongside our motorways and major A roads.
“Our ground-breaking partnership with Cumbria Wildlife Trust and its Get Cumbria Buzzing initiative has helped breathe new life into our roadside verges – particularly in enhancing habitats for vital pollinator species.”
Since 2015 the company has invested around £25 million towards the creation, enhancement and restoration of habitats on or near the motorway and major road network. The combined group of projects within the Network for Nature programme will be one of the biggest contributors towards biodiversity improvements.
Simon Thomas, Cumbria Wildlife Trust’s Lead Peatland Restoration Officer, added: “We’re delighted to receive funding from Network for Nature, which will enable us to carry out peatland restoration work on United Utilities land at Shap Fell, by the M6. This iconic area of upland moorland is well-known as one of the highest points on any English motorway.
“The restored, healthy peatlands will lock in CO2, preventing it from being released into the environment; they will revive a functioning habitat for wildlife, helping moorland birds such as red grouse, snipe and golden plover; protect water quality, and help reduce flood risk downstream.”
Nikki Robinson, Network for Nature Programme Manager for The Wildlife Trusts said: “We’re very pleased that National Highways is committed to Network for Nature, with a strategic approach to restoring nature and joining up vital places for wildlife to help counter the impacts of previous road building.
“Historic road building programmes have contributed to nature’s decline, fragmenting wild spaces and causing environmental pollution, and this programme will help Wildlife Trusts throughout England carry out important nature conservation work, and contribute to a national Nature Recovery Network, connecting town and countryside, and joining up vital places for wildlife, and promoting landscape scale connectivity.”
National Highways aim to achieve no net loss to biodiversity by 2025, lead industry peers and the supply chain, and encourage and support communities to connect with wildlife and wild places where they live and work.
Currently in its third year, National Highways’ Designated Funds programme, which was allocated £936m for Roads Period 2 (2020-2025), is divided into four funding streams aimed at making the biggest difference and delivering lasting benefits; environment and wellbeing, users and communities, safety and congestion and innovation and modernisation. You can find a full list of projects in the North West below.
For more information, please visit the webpage.
Notes
About Network for Nature projects in North West England
Cumbria Wildlife Trust - peatland restoration: Peatland restoration in an area of badly damaged blanket bog, which needs re-wetting to enable it to store carbon and help combat climate change. Damaged and dried out peat releases carbon dioxide, increases flood risk, and reduces habitat for wildlife. The work will increase cottongrass, bilberry, cranberry, and bog rosemary and attract golden plover, short-eared owl, and snipe. The fell was bisected by the construction of the M6 motorway.
Cumbria Wildlife Trust - wildflower meadow restoration: Supporting wild and diverse pollinators including bumblebees, beetles, and moths through planting wildflower meadows close to urban housing estates near Penrith.
Lancashire Wildlife Trust - Pollinator networks A56-M65: Creating a linear pollinator network on and near to the A56-M65, creating and restoring grasslands and other special places for insects to reverse the impacts of fragmentation and habitat loss caused by the road network. The project will focus on 100 hectares for pollinators including the solitary Tormentil Mining-bee, the Emperor Moth and the Green Hairstreak butterfly, and key food plants, Devil's-bit Scabious, Bilberry and Upright Tormentil.
Lancashire Wildlife Trust - Nature connections on the Manchester Mosses – M62: Nature connections on the Manchester Mosses, will re-create a nature recovery network across this endangered landscape, which is bisected by the M62. The project will improve, and re-wet lowland raised bog for specialist plants, including sphagnum mosses, improve carbon storage, and offer wildlife stepping stone sites and buffer areas.
Lancashire Wildlife Trust - Red Moss M61: Restoration and enhancement of Red Moss, a rare area of lowland raised peat bog adjacent to the M61. Re-wetting works will connect higher and drier parts of the bog with lower and wetter areas, allowing plants species such as the carnivorous sundews to colonise these new areas, and increasing the available habitat for wetland specialist wildlife.
National Highways’ Designated Funds programme
Between 2015 and 2020 the programme:
- Ensured over 95 per cent of England’s motorways and major A-roads are within 20 miles of a rapid electric vehicle charging points.
- Reduced the impact of noise for around 50,000 people living alongside motorways and implemented measures to reduce air pollution at identified hotspots.
- Delivered more than 160 cycle schemes including upgraded crossings to improve connectivity with local communities.
- Tackled 260 locations vulnerable to flooding with improved drainage and ecology.
Other achievements include 124 biodiversity initiatives, 150 safety improvements on single carriageway roads to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured and over 6,500 lights and traffic signals converted to LED.