Help Save the
Somerset Levels

Just £10 will help transform former industrial sites into nature reserves

We urgently need your help to raise £100,000 to restore the equivalent of 26 football pitches of former peat diggings to lush wetland where wildlife can flourish.

Somerset’s historic Levels are steeped in myth and legend and a place where nature’s beauty shines against the unerring backdrop of Glastonbury Tor, but our native wildlife is under threat from a devastating loss of wetland habitat.

Your donation will help restore our damaged countryside so wildlife continues to thrive on the internationally important Levels and Moors.

You can also donate via your mobile phone

Just text LEVE11 and the amount you’d like to donate (eg £10) to 70070 

How will your donation be used?

This kind of habitat restoration is a huge undertaking for a local charity and will include:

• Creation of reed beds and traditional rhynes
• Eradicating alien species that blanket the landscape and stop native plants growing
• Smoothing out the bath-tub shaped holes left by peat extraction
• Stemming the flow of water so our wetland nature reserves don’t dry out
• Improving access for local people to enjoy  native wildlife

More information

For more information about how your donation is supporting our work on the Somerset Levels click these links and tabs:

See our Wildlife Gallery - click the tab above

Find Out About the Reserves - click the tab above

Find out more about Somerset Wildlife Trust

Otters © Brain Phipps
Kingfisher © Brian Phipps

Wildlife Gallery

Somerset Wildlife Trust’s Development Officer for the Levels, Mark Steer, tells us more about some of the species that make it such a special place.

Marsh orchid

The Somerset Levels contain some of the UK’s best wet meadow habitats, home to a dazzling array of flowers once common, but now sadly dwindling across much of the country. One of the most spectacular of these has to be the marsh orchid, whose stunning spikes of purple flowers wave in the spring breezes in May and June. Marsh orchids, along with other wetland specialists, have suffered from habitat degradation and changing farming practices. We use traditional techniques to manage our meadows and pastures, allowing these fabulous flowers to thrive.

Banded demoiselle

Arguably the most beautiful of our damselflies, the banded demoiselle looks like it would be more suited to a tropical jungle stream than a British wetland. Look out for males flitting between patches of waterweed on the Brue Valley’s slow moving rivers and ditches as they defend the best breeding sites. Our work will create new ditch habitats for these colourful creatures.

Hobby

One consequence of creating habitats which are perfect for dragonflies is that you also create habitat which is perfect for animals which eat dragonflies ­and that means hobbies. Hobbies are our most attractive falcon. Sporting a dashingly striped chest and handsome moustache, they glide through the skies on sickle-shaped wings plucking dragonflies from the air with vivid red feet. Even then they don’t land, often preferring to eat their prey while still flying before going on the hunt again. By providing extensive areas of new wetland habitat perfect for dragonflies, we will also be helping to conserve this wonderful bird of prey.

Kingfisher

A jewel of the river, kingfishers thrive where water is shallow, clear and full of small fish. Waiting patiently from a branch, scanning the ripples, kingfishers will suddenly plunge into the water like a sapphire dart to catch their next meal. This is no mean feat for a bird no bigger than a sparrow, but they are helped by having specialised eyes which allow them to adjust their aim to take account of the angle of light refracting through the water. As a kingfisher has to eat 60% of its own bodyweight every day just to survive, our work is vital to ensuring that the wetlands are clean and alive with food.

Yellow flag

One of the most beautiful and recognisable of all wetlands plants, yellow flag irises don’t just brighten up wetlands, they also provide an important source of nectar for bumblebees and other pollinators. By standing tall and thrusting their gaudy blooms high into the air, the iris advertises its presence to passing insects in the hope that they will fly from flower to flower, fertilising them with pollen as they go. The restoration work carried out by the Trust will create a series of shallow pools: perfect places for the irises to advertise!

Otter

Otters are enjoying a resurgence across the country following a chequered past. Pollution of our rivers and streams decimated otter populations; by the end of the 1970s they were virtually extinct in England and Wales. Luckily otters managed to hang on in a few special places ­ including the Brue Valley ­ and it has been from these last refuges that otters have been able to make their stunning recovery now our watercourses have been cleaned up. By making sure that ditches and waterways are well maintained, we are helping to ensure that the waters of the Somerset Levels stay clear, healthy and full of tasty fish.

Find Out About the Reserves

As part of our Living Landscape project in the Brue Valley, we have recently bought four new pieces of land on the Levels giving us an important opportunity to expand and protect our Westhay Moor and Catcott Nature Reserves.

Industrial scale peat extraction, changes in water management and intensification of farming have seen wetlands drained and with this drying out of the landscape we are losing huge swathes of the vital wildlife habitat.

We face a constant battle to keep our wetland nature reserves wet, and to stem the flow of water caused by the peat extraction taking place in the surrounding landscape. At Westhay Moor we have already installed a wind pump to help keep a particularly delicate and rare area of habitat wet and at Catcott water levels are carefully controlled for wintering, spring passage and breeding birds.

Find out more about these important nature reserves and the wildlife found there by clicking these links. Our nature reserves are open all year round so why not take a visit and see for yourself why these places are so special

Westhay Moor Nature Reserve

The Catcott Complex