We are hugely grateful to trustee Ron Bryant, who purchased Lea Farm Lake from Summerleaze Holdings last year and has now gifted it to Lavell’s Wetland Trust. This is a key step in fulfilling the Trust’s vision of a protected wetland corridor through the lower Loddon valley.  Owning the lake gives LWT the confidence to invest in extensive wetland habitat creation around it and in providing members with more facilities to see and enjoy nature there.

We aim to start the wetland creation work later this year and hope to be able, in a few years, to add a second hide to view the new habitats. To bring this to fruition, the Trust will be calling on its members to join in work parties and to help with fundraising.About this more anon!

LWT has been awarded a grant of £42,000 by Network Rail to develop the wetland habitat around Lea Farm Lake. This will allow us to create an extensive reed-bed and a large area of marsh and shallows along the east shore of the lake.  Around most of the lake the bank shelves steeply into deep water, so there is little marginal vegetation and shallow water for wading birds. The grant will enable us to landscape the shore around the northern half of the lake, lowering the level to create reed-beds and extending the east shore to form shallows and islets. Subject to planning permission, the  landscaping work will start after the 2020 breeding season and take about a month.  Then all hands to reed planting!