Kilnhurst Ings Nature Reserve: Water for Wildlife

The word Ings literally means water meadow or marsh (from the Old Norse) and provides a clue to its past as a floodplain of the River Don. However, these days the Ings are disconnected from the river due to the presence of a vital floodbank that helps protect communities from flooding.

However, there is an exciting opportunity to make the site wetter and make space for nature by working with an existing watercourse and series of ditches on site. By installing a small dam/sluice at the lower end of the basin water can be backed up and around the site via a series of ditches and foot drains and by supplementing this with some scrape/pond work a range of vital wet habitat would be created.
Wading birds such as snipe and lapwing will benefit from the wet, rushy habitat and scrapes, as well as damsel and dragonflies. Historically there were water vole on site, so in time this iconic species may also return.

People will benefit too by having an attractive wetland reserve to walk around and enjoy the nature it’ll support.