Freshwater Habitats Trust is moving 500 endangered plants from homes and community centres across Oxfordshire in a special project.
With many ‘lost’ species being reintroduced, the wildlife conservation charity is bringing the plants back to Oxfordshire’s freshwaters, fens and wetlands.
Over the summer, the Oxford-based charity invited people to volunteer for its GroWet project. Approximately 500 people signed up to nurture a rare wetland plant in their gardens and even on their windowsills. The plants were grown from seed and cuttings at Oxford Botanic Garden before being delivered to homes and community centres.
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With the help of volunteers, Freshwater Habitats Trust is now planting some of the GroWet plants at Otmoor RSPB reserve, just outside Oxford. The team will then introduce plants to other ponds, streams and wetlands across the county.
They include 27 native species, which were once plentiful in the British countryside and across Oxfordshire but are now in decline. Some are so rare they are at risk of becoming extinct in England without the sort of help being offered through GroWet. Some of the rarest examples are: Grass-of-Parnassus: a striking white-flowered plant of fens, which is locally scarce in Oxfordshire, and Tawny-sedge, which grows in peatlands and damp meadows and, in Oxfordshire, is now limited to 10 sites.
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GroWet is part of Freshwater Habitats Trust’s Building Oxfordshire’s Freshwater Network project. Funded through the Government’s Green Recovery Challenge Fund, this major initiative marks the beginning of the charity’s new approach to protecting and restoring freshwater habitats by building a national network of high quality habitats for wildlife.
To support GroWet, Freshwater Habitats Trust ran a series of community events including a Big Nature Day at Hinksey Heights Nature Reserve in Oxford.
Freshwater Habitats Trust Community Engagement Officer Lizzie Every said: “GroWet has had such a positive response from people across Oxfordshire and we’re so grateful to all our volunteers. We hear so much bad news about the environment that we can often feel helpless.
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"GroWet has given people the opportunity to do something practical that could make a real difference to wildlife on their doorstep. Caring for a rare plant at home has also connected people to our beautiful but threatened wetlands.”
Freshwater Habitats Trust CEO Jeremy Biggs said: “Involving the local community through GroWet is a vital part of this project.
“By nurturing endangered plants, local people are helping us to restore some of Britain’s most precious wetlands.”
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This story was written by Andy Ffrench, he joined the team more than 20 years ago and now covers community news across Oxfordshire.
Get in touch with him by emailing: Andy.ffrench@newsquest.co.uk
Follow him on Twitter @OxMailAndyF
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