Bringing a Boom to the Tame Valley: Middleton Lakes

The project, at RSPB Middleton Lakes, draws on the latest ecological expertise to provide optimum habitat, large enough to support the rare and threatened breeding bittern, as well as other reedbed-dwelling species, such as water vole. 360 degree excavators and bulldozers will be employed to create 8 hectares of wet reedbed including 1 hectare of solid reeds and enhance 20 hectares of the surrounding wetland with a water depth of about half a metre. The work will be delivered by an engineering contractor working to designs provided by RSPB staff and ecologists.