Support our Water for Wildlife appeal

At Dorset Wildlife Trust’s Wild Woodbury nature reserve near Bere Regis, a pioneering wetland restoration project is underway to benefit wildlife locally and improve water quality downstream in Poole Harbour. For decades, drainage channels carved across the landscape have forced water off the land quickly and unnaturally. This has left Dorset with rivers that are straightened, disconnected from their floodplains, and often carrying excess nutrients into Poole Harbour as a result of agricultural runoff. These nutrients, mainly nitrogen and phosphorus, fuel algal blooms, reduce oxygen in the water, and threaten the seagrass meadows, fish, and internationally important birdlife that depend on the harbour. 

Wild Woodbury is reversing this story. By restoring the headwaters of the River Sherford, removing artificial channels and allowing water to find its own path through the landscape — a more natural, slower-flowing river system has emerged. Water now spreads across the land in shallow, braided streams, filtering through soils and vegetation before reaching the harbour. This slows the flow, reduces pollution, and helps lock nutrients into the soil instead of washing them out to sea. 

The benefits for wildlife have been immediate and long-lasting. Wet areas across the reserve are now home to lapwing, snipe, amphibians, dragonflies, and a rich array of freshwater invertebrates. New wetlands create vital habitat mosaics — from shallow ephemeral pools and muddy scrapes — supporting greater biodiversity and resilience in the face of climate change. 

By demonstrating what is possible at Wild Woodbury, Dorset Wildlife Trust is showing how natural processes can be restored to improve water quality, reduce flooding risk, capture carbon, and create a thriving landscape for wildlife and people. The project is not only healing a river but contributing to a cleaner, healthier future for Poole Harbour.