The Wildlife Trusts are working in partnership with National Highways to improve habitats across England benefitting people, nature and wildlife, launching a new £6 million Network for Nature programme that will improve habitats across England, benefitting people, nature and wildlife. 

In our region a range of habitats and species will benefit with funding of £346,000, as BCN Director of Conservation, Matt Jackson explains: "Network for Nature is helping us create and improve habitat on three of our roadside nature reserves in Bedfordshire - Luton and Dunstable - and Northamptonshire. From wetland habitats in the Nene Valley through to chalk grasslands in the Chiltern Hills, this programme will help us manage sites to improve them for water voles, slow worms and sand martins. The Network for Nature programme is specifically aimed at making sure that any new or improved habitat links into the surrounding landscape, so that genuine networks for wildlife are created."

In Bedfordshire at Blow's Downs the project will improve conservation grazing, helping chalkhill blue, small blue and brown argus butterflies by creating chalk scrapes with a wider and improved range of wildflowers, including horseshoe vetch, common rock-rose and kidney vetch, food plants for these butterflies. Monitoring and surveying for slow worms and birds. There will be new carved benches with wildlife information for visitors who visit this highly popular nature reserve for the spectacular views from the chalk hills. 

While at The Riddy, also Beds, the Riddy Connectivity Restoration project will help restore part of the River Ivel, and together with tree planting will provide a wildlife corridor allowing animals, including the endangered water vole, to move into the wider landscape surrounding the nearby the nature reserve.  

Nationally 26 biodiversity projects will aim to enhance, restore and create more than 1,700 acres (690 hectares) of woodlands, grasslands, peatlands and wetlands across every region of England,

Nikki Robinson, Network for Nature Programme Manager for The Wildlife Trusts said: “We’re very pleased that National Highways is committed to Network for Nature, with a strategic approach to restoring nature and joining up vital places for wildlife to help counter the impacts of previous road building. 

“Historic road building programmes have contributed to nature’s decline, fragmenting wild spaces and causing environmental pollution, and this programme will help Wildlife Trusts throughout England carry out important nature conservation work, and contribute to a national Nature Recovery Network, connecting town and countryside, and joining up vital places for wildlife, and promoting landscape scale connectivity.”

Stephen Elderkin, Environmental Sustainability Division lead for National Highways, said: “We’re committed to significantly improving biodiversity near our road network, and the projects set out by The Wildlife Trusts will be a vital step in putting the strategic road network at the heart of nature’s recovery.

“At National Highways, our work goes beyond operating, maintaining and improving roads; we’re investing in the environment and communities surrounding our network, helping to unlock the creation and enhancement of habitats, and this is an example of the difference we can make with designated funding. We are delighted to partner with The Wildlife Trusts to realise these projects – a glowing example of how this funding can improve biodiversity near our roads.”