Pioneering river restoration declared a success delivering incredible benefits for nature and people within 12 months of completion

A year on from the completion of a three-year project on the National Trust’s Holnicote Estate in Somerset to reconnect a section of a river to its floodplain – the innovative ‘Stage 0’ river restoration technique, first pioneered in Oregon, USA – has been heralded a success.

The ‘ctrl alt delete’ of the river was the first large-scale attempt to reset a UK river to fully reconnect its waters with the surrounding floodplain by filling in a 1.2km managed, straightened and deepened section of the River Aller to transform the area and dramatically create seven hectares of waterscapes and wetlands (equivalent to more than ten football pitches).

A priority habitat for nature, wetlands are extremely important to not only slow the flow of water and to hold it during times of drought, but they are also significant for their ability to store carbon and act as homes for wildlife. However, sadly over 90 per cent[3] of wetland habitat in the UK has been lost in the last 100 years, and over 10 per cent of our freshwater and wetland species are threatened with extinction.