Thames Landscape Strategy - Hampton to Kew -

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Home Park Paddocks Habitat Restoration Project - Volunteers Needed

The Historic Royal Palaces are working in partnership with the Thames Landscape Strategy to implement an exciting new project. This project will restore a historic wetland habitat within the floodplain of the River Thames at Home Park, Hampton Court Palace. This area known as the Paddocks is primarily used for the grazing of horses as it has been for over 300 years. Within The Paddocks there are a series of ditches and water courses which form part of the outflow from the Longford River after it passes through the Palace formal gardens and water features. An area of reedbed and a range of relic fluvial wetland features are found here which could form valuable ecological habitats.

An important aspect of the project is that the historical hydrological features are restored to enable the rejuvenation of the existing reedbed and interconnecting ditches. Fencing off areas will minimise damage caused by horses grazing marginal vegetation.

The program of work over the next year will include the restoration of the existing reedbed area by removing areas of scrub that have established over the last few decades. This will happen through the coppicing of willow and other trees, clearing the ditches to improve water flow where overgrown by dominant species, excavating the ditches and transplanting some of the reed out to create areas of open water to enhance the biodiversity of these reedbeds. This will involve re-profiling the watercourses to produce marginal habitats to best suit water voles, which have been recorded previously in the area, and to create habitats for invertebrates and amphibians. The ditches and watercourses will be planted up with some suitable marginal plants of local provenance and be allowed to colonise naturally.

There will extensive opportunities for volunteers and community groups to get involved in practical conservation tasks to create these new habitats. There will also be a range of tasks to suit all abilities. Tools and training are provided.

If you are interested in helping out on one of the volunteer days then please email rebecca.law@richmond.gov.uk for dates and where to meet.

Details of organised events will be published on the Thames Landscape Strategy website in the upcoming weeks and will start in the New Year

This project has been made possible thanks to a generous grant from the Sita Trust and other donations but funding is still needed to continue this work and complete all the targets. If you would like to make a donation towards this project please contact Rebecca or download the donations form for the Father Thames Trust (the TLS’ charitable arm) and note that it is towards this project.

You can download a donations form here.

You can also make your donation go upto 28% further, at no extra cost to yourself, by registering for Gift Aid
Please fill and return this Gift Aid form

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