RSPB Pulborough Brooks, ‘Wet & Wadery Project’
Keystone delivered the Wet and Wadery project at Pulborough Brooks, installing new sluices, a pipe dam and eel passes to improve water control and wetland resilience.
Keystone was appointed to deliver the restoration of a ditch line and adjacent wet heathland within a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Surrey.
Service Highlights
- We surveyed ditch and pond levels at both ends of the watercourse to establish the existing fall and inform our design.
- We developed a strategy that stabilised the ditch banks, reduced highway flooding, restored the adjacent heathland and maintained the hydrological conditions required for wet heathland.
- We installed hazel and sweet chestnut revetments along the restoration stretch to secure the banks.
- We carefully sorted excavated substrate into its original soil layers, reprofiled the ditch banks and replaced heathland turves. We reinstated a suitable base layer to support successful heathland regeneration.
Approach
We convened a site meeting with the Council Ecologist, County Highways and the client to agree a clear strategy for restoration and highway flood alleviation.
We secured use of an adjacent landowner’s yard for a compound and accessed the site via a bridleway to minimise impacts on the designated heathland.
We set out the revetment contours on site and obtained approval from the Council Ecologist prior to commencing works.
We worked alongside our in-house Ecology team to implement restoration methods that safeguarded reptiles and eliminated the risk of injury or death.
We sorted and reinstated substrate appropriately, using plant indicators to identify and preserve its original provenance.
Outcome
We delivered a fully functional site designed to accelerate habitat recovery and improve flood resilience.
We met the client’s brief while completing the project on schedule and within the agreed budget.
We enhanced ecological value at no additional cost by repurposing felled trees into reptile hibernacula and strategically orientating retained root balls southwards to optimise conditions for invertebrates.
